Options probe forces RIM restatement
PrintChairman dethroned
Posted in Financial News, 5th March 2007 21:51 GMT
Free whitepaper – The Dell Management Console and ITIL
Research in Motion will restate three years of earnings following an internal stock options probe, the company said today. The aggregate effect of the revisions will lop $250m off RIM's historic earnings.
As another consequence of the options probe co-CEO Jim Balsille, who unusually, shares the role with RIM founder Mike Lazaridis, will relinquish his job as chairman. He continues in the joint-CEO capacity, however, and Lazaridis is permitted to keep his other role of President.
RIM said the hat switch is designed to ensure the company conforms to "current best practices" in corporate governance.
RIM announced that it was investigating the backdating of options last September. The internal options probe found Balsille responsible for backdated options grants which were not correctly accounted for, including some granted for RIM's public flotation ten years ago. Both Balsille and Lazardis said they'll cover the cost of the investigation personally.
John Richardson assumes the role of board chairman, on an expanded board.
RIM reported a net income of $176m on revenue of $835m in its most recent quarter, ending December 2. ®
The Register Agile Data Center Summit
What Exchange can't do - and Dell can
Automating the Acquisition Process with Enterprise Level CRM
Market Primer: ERP Systems
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide
Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter