Blackberry

rryBlackBerry’s Latest Delay Could Lead to Lawsuits

Julie Fletcher/Bloomberg News
OTTAWA — A friendly crowd is unlikely to greet Thorsten Heins on Tuesday, when he makes his first appearance aschief executive at the annual meeting here of Research in Motion.
Shares in the BlackBerry maker have fallen by about 95 percent from their peak in mid-2008. And last month, not only did RIM post a$518 million quarterly loss, but it also surprised investors by announcing that a new line of phones critical to its future would again be delayed.
But the annual meeting may not be the only forum forshareholders to vent their displeasure. Several securities law experts and some investors say the delay in the BlackBerry 10, and overly optimistic remarks as recently as last week by Mr. Heins sincehe took over the top job in January, may also make RIM the target of shareholder lawsuits.
“They’re going to get sued and they should get sued because I think a closer look at the record is likely tounearth knowing and willful misrepresentation,” said Jean-Louis Gassée, the former president of Apple’s products division and the founder of the software maker Be, who is now a venture capitalist andblogger in Palo Alto, Calif. “When the C.E.O. says there’s nothing wrong with the company as it is, it’s not cautious, it doesn’t make sense.”
After disappointing shareholders in June, Mr. Heinsgave a radio interview last week, wrote opinion pieces for two Canadian newspapers and took online questions from visitors to The Globe and Mail’s Web site. As part of a public relations offensive,speaking with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he forecast a sunny future for Research in Motion by saying, “There’s nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now” and denying that RIM was,as some investors believe, in a death spiral.
In a statement, RIM rejected any suggestion that the company had misled investors. “RIM is well aware of its disclosure obligations under applicable...