RIM booking a $485 million charge in quarterly earnings due to Playbook sales

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RIM booking a $485 million charge in quarterly earnings due to Playbook sales
RIM’s December earnings release is nearing, but while there are still two weeks prior to that, the Canadian company has already announced that it will be registering a $485 million “pre-tax provision” to make up for unsold PlayBook inventory. Put in simpler terms, the company is writing off the sum just because it doesn’t believe it can sell the PlayBooks. The new setback also means that RIM no longer expects to meet its goal for diluted earnings of $5.25 to $6.00 per share.

On the positive side of things, customers will continue seeing slashed prices on RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook as the company aims to clear inventory. Luckily, RIM is not quitting the QNX-based PlayBook completely as was the case with the HP TouchPad, but will continue developing new products. "RIM is committed to the BlackBerry PlayBook," Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said. "Early results from recent PlayBook promotions indicate a significant increase in demand across most channels."

The Canadians also expect to take a $50 million hit related to the couple of days of service outage that could be felt around the world. At these troubled times, it’s good news that the company’s smartphone shipment estimate remains unchanged at 14.1 million. Finally, RIM warned that its fourth quarter results will be lower than those it posted in the third trimester.

source: Reuters

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