The Blackberry maker , RIM , has announced that its co-founder and co-chairman Mr. Lazaridis has stepped down alongwith Mr. Balsillie who was also a co-chairman . Both of them have been leading the company for more than 20 years now. Thorten Heins , a co-chief operating officer has been appointed as Chief Executive .
Heinz , originally from Germany , joined RIM in 2007 . Previously he was the CTO of Siemens AG . He has been working under the shadow of Lazaridis and Balsillie . He was Chief Operating Officer for hardware , software and sales. However , Mr. Lazardis will still stay as the vice chairman of the board and Mr. Balsillie as member of the board.
RIM has been fighting a crisis after failing to keep pace with rivals , Apple and Google . Its share price plummeted to 1/4th during 2011 . The company had been under strong criticism from its shareholders for operational inefficiencies . The exit of M/S Lazaridis and Balsillie is more than even the angry shareholders were demanding . The company has however , said that this change at the top is not result of the shareholders’s pressure or the stock price of RIM.
The company has said that it will essentially be following the roadmap set by the two departing CEOs which consists of rolling out an updated Playbook , a New Blackberry and Blackberry 10 operating system powering both.
The speculation has been going rounds for quite some time that RIM may encounter a hostile bid but Balsillie and Lazardis repeatedly said in the past that they were not interested in a sale of the company . Mr. Heinz said that he considered RIM’s Blackberry 10 operating system as its biggest bet for success and would consider its licensing to other vendors on a case by case basis , if it was successful
