It’s no secret that investors have their doubts about RIM, but we're hearing, the employees do too!
With shares down about 50% year to date, Jonathan Geller published a letter on his Boy Genius website written by a high ranking RIM executive intended for the company's two CEOs.
And it reveals just how dire morale may be inside the company's hallowed walls.
Here's an excerpt:
I have lost confidence.
While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone — the sentiment is widespread and it includes people within your own teams.
Mike (Lazaridis) and Jim (Balsillie), please take the time to really absorb and digest the content of this letter because it reflects the feeling across a huge percentage of your employee base.
Although he can’t reveal the writer’s identity, Geller tells us he’s 100% confident this letter was written by a company insider. And he's not surprised. "RIM is down, they're having trouble and they're going through a transition period," he says.
Perhaps the letter is no surprise - but what is a surprise is just how quickly the letter seems to have stirred the pot. RIM quickly responded on their website. They said in part:
"It is particularly difficult to believe that a 'high level employee' in good standing with the company would choose to anonymously publish a letter on the web rather than engage their fellow executives in a constructive manner, but regardless of whether the letter is real, fake, exaggerated or written with ulterior motivations, it is fair to say that the senior management team at RIM is nonetheless fully aware of and aggressively addressing both the company’s challenges and its opportunities.”
And the point-counter point may not be over. Geller tells us that he’s going to publish two more letters from two other employees, and they may be even more revealing. Geller tells Fast Money that one of the next letters says "headhunters are circling" and "smart people are leaving..."
If morale inside RIM is really this bad, how should you trade?
All the Fast Money traders are very cautious of owning this stock.
Trader Joe Terranova wonders if RIM will become the next Palm. Trader Mike Khouw admits that he tried to catch the falling knife and he got cut. “We’d need to see something material now before I could get back in.” If you think RIM is worth a flier because it just can’t go any lower, Trader Guy Adami says think again. "It can go lower."
The only trader that’s even modestly optimistic is Brian Kelly who thinks RIM's new QNX operating system could be a game changer. However he says, “it could take 5 years.”
