Research-In-Motion, the company behind the once-popular BlackBerry handsets, has been on a downward spiral, trying to shed a lot of employees and stay afloat. The sales of once-loved BlackBerry handset has squarely hit rock bottom in a number of countries including US and RIM is finding it hard to somehow carry on.
The only beacon of hope for RIM remains BlackBerry 10 which is expected to come out on BB handsets sometime during the first quarter of next year. And it is apparently in the hopes of somehow regaining its eminence with BB 10 handsets that RIM is trying hard to sustain itself over time.
The company has shed thousands of jobs and is planning to shed many more. It has also been trying to reduce its operational costs and now, reports say that the company is all set to sell one of its two jets in order to bring in some money as well as cut costs. The jet that is up for sale is a nine-passenger Dassault Aviation SA F50EX. RIM is looking forward to bring in some $6 million to $7 million through this sale.
According to an official statement from RIM, “We’re looking at options with both our aircraft costs and finding ways to reduce our travel while still making sure we keep in close contact with our partners around the world. It’s all part of the effort to find ways to reduce costs and drive efficiencies that Thorsten Heins has talked about.”
It is naturally a wise move by RIM since keeping the jet incurs an average cost of $2.1 million a year. Given the circumstances that RIM is in, it is definitely not the best time to take rides on a private jet. If indeed RIM plans on fighting it till the end in the hopes of making its BB10 platform a success, it needs to secure all possible resources to prepare for just that.
Source: Bloomberg
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