BlackBerry maker teeters between has-been and hot value

TORONTO, ONT: APRIL 19, 2011 — The BlackBerry PlayBook in Toronto, Ontario, Tuesday, April 19, 2011. Unlike the more successful Ipad launches which have seen long early morning lineups, there were only 3 people waiting for the store to open to be the first to get the new tablet device. (Tyler Anderson / National Post) closecut close cut

When you make a product so useful and spellbinding it is nicknamed after crack cocaine, you know you’re on to something.

That was certainly once the case with the BlackBerry, or the CrackBerry, as it was called by many. That somewhat odd euphemism symbolized how dominant Canada’s most successful tech firm, Research in Motion (RIM), had become.

Only a few years ago, the BlackBerry was a corporate must-have. Even the most popular and powerful man on Earth — Barack Obama — loved to “crack.”

Things were looking bright for its maker, Research in Motion, based in Waterloo, Ont. After all, it had effectively changed the way we work and communicate.

But today, RIM’s future is suddenly in doubt. BlackBerry has gone from the IT world’s “it” device to a perceived one-trick pony, fighting off tech-sector giants Google and Apple.

It’s no longer in a battle to remain the leader. Now the question is whether RIM can hold on to what market share it has left.

Still, it’s hard to deny millions of BlackBerry users find their devices indispensable. Furthermore, RIM has impeccable financials. It earns billions of dollars in profits annually, carries no debt and, perhaps for the first time in a long time, seems to be a reasonably priced stock buy for value investors.

RIM’s share price has fallen so far — to about $27 a share today from $148 a share in 2008 — it’s no longer in the purview of just mutual funds and other institutional investors… Read More [via winnipegfreepress]