Advertisement 1

RIM's former co-CEO Jim Balsillie cuts his stake in BlackBerry

The man who was perhaps most instrumental in building the business now appears to have zero involvement with the company now named BlackBerry Ltd

Article content

Names of Reporting Persons: James L. Balsillie Amount beneficially owned: 0 Shared power to vote or to direct the vote: 0 Percent of class: 0%

The U.S. regulatory filing disclosing Jim Balsillie’s ownership stake in Research in Motion Ltd. laid out the liquidation of his shares in stark terms. The man who was perhaps most instrumental in building the business from a small Waterloo startup into Canada’s most famous technology company now appears to have zero involvement with the company now named BlackBerry Ltd.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content
He sold everything. That’s what it looks like
Article content

A year earlier Mr. Balsillie’s 13G filing with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed he held 5.1% ownership stake.

As of Dec. 31, 2012, Mr. Balsillie’s stake in RIM fell below the 5% mandatory reporting threshold. Previously, Mr. Balsillie — who stepped down as co-CEO with RIM founder Mike Lazaridis last January — had been the third-largest shareholder in the company.

The 13G regulatory filing suggests Mr. Balsillie has sold his entire position, said Washington, D.C.-based lawyer Thomas Gorman of Dorsey & Whitney LLP.

“He sold everything. That’s what it looks like,” Mr. Gorman said after perusing the filing required by anyone who owns 5% or more of a class of shares and then adds to or reduces that position.

As of Dec. 11, 2011, Mr. Balsillie held 26,840,490 shares of RIM stock. While it remains unclear at which point in 2012 Mr. Balsillie sold his shares, based on RIM’s average 2012 share price of $10.96, his sale would have netted him in the neighbourhood of US$294-million.

Between 2008 and 2012, Mr. Balsillie reduced his stake in RIM by roughly 9 million shares at much higher selling prices.

Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

Mr. Balsillie’s sell off could be interpreted as a sign that RIM’s longtime leader has lost confidence in BlackBerry’s hopes for a turnaround, a move that could be a cause for concern among investors. But a dip in reaction to the news was wiped out by midday Thursday and BlackBerry’s shares ended the day up 7.8% on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Once Canada’s most famous business executive, Mr. Balsillie became an international icon as the leader of RIM as the company’s BlackBerry devices achieved international acclaim, defining the smartphone market more than a decade ago.

Mr. Balsillie resigned his seat on RIM’s board of directors last March, just two months after he and Mr. Lazaridis were replaced as the leaders of RIM by BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins.

Under his leadership, RIM grew to become the jewel of Canada’s business community internationally, only to plummet in the face of overwhelming competition from its smartphone rivals, namely Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc.’s Android software.

A graduate of Harvard University, Mr. Balsillie was instrumental in RIM’s ascension from a Waterloo startup building email pagers to a global brand, selling BlackBerry smartphones in hundreds of markets around the world.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

However, as RIM’s fortunes waned in the face of rising competition, product delays and declining margins, Mr. Balsillie faced hard criticism over several unsuccessful attempts to purchase a National Hockey League franchise, a side project which some detractors believed diverted his attention from RIM at a time when new competitors — namely the iPhone — were beginning to gain traction with consumers.

Since stepping down from RIM, Mr. Balsillie has remained relatively out of the spotlight, only granting a handful of interviews.

Last month, at the New York unveiling of the company’s new BlackBerry 10 platform, Mr. Heins publicly thanked both Mr. Balsillie and Mr. Lazaridis for their help in RIM’s development.

However, only Mr. Lazaridis was in attendance at the event in New York.

According to Bloomberg data, Mr. Lazaridis remains BlackBerry’s largest individual shareholder, controlling 5.7% of the company. Fairfax Financial Holdings is BlackBerry’s largest shareholder, with a stake of 9.9%.

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins holds less than 100,000 shares of the company, or roughly 0.02%.

With files from Barbara Shecter

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.

This Week in Flyers