BlackBerry outage hurts RIM stock


October 14, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON

Research in Motion Ltd. said BlackBerry service was fully restored after its worst-ever outage, but the ramifications continued as the company worked to clear a backlog of messages.

Shares of RIM dropped 27 cents, or 1.1 percent, to close Thursday at $23.61 as concerns about effects of the worldwide service outage added to the company’s growing competitive problems. The stock lost 2.2 percent Wednesday when the outage hit North America and has fallen about 59 percent this year.

RIM has been losing market share rapidly to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices using Google Inc.’s Android operating system, and the problems this week shook BlackBerry’s reputation for reliability, a key reason for its popularity with corporate and government customers.

“Whether you look at this from a corporate perspective or a consumer perspective, it’s a disaster,” said Maribel Lopez, a wireless-industry analyst at Lopez Research.

RIM executives vowed to restore the faith for its 70 million customers.

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