Blackberry Maker Gets a New CEO
Removing its co-CEOs, Blackberry-maker Research in Motion is installing Thorsten Heins as its new chief to not-so-raucous applause. The news this morning amounts to a reshuffling of RIM's top brass: Heins is being promoted up from COO of the company while co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie will stay on as members of the board of directors, a fact that has tech writers not very confident that the move will be enough to save BlackBerry from its struggling sales. SplatF's Dan Frommer writes, "Unless Heins is secretly a rare, freakish visionary genius whose creativity has been stifled by his former bosses for all these years — he’s been at RIM since 2007, right when it started to get into trouble — he’s not going to save the company from its decline." Engadget also registers its dissatisfaction with the move in an editorial, writing "Anyone who assumes that a simple CEO swap is the answer to all of RIM's issues is woefully misinformed, or worse, just blinded by false hope." And finally, Peter Kafka quips about RIM, "Time for a change. But not too much change!"
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If you'd like to hear somebody say something positive about the move, you'll probably have to listen to Heins talking up his promotion in the meet-the-new-boss video below.
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