It looks like Research In Motion’s eternal (and sometimes baffling) optimism about BlackBerry’s future has come to bite them in the rear. Earlier this week, an Atlanta firm began investigating RIM to see if they had posted financial statements between December and April that did not disclose everything they were legally required to. As you might guess, the investigation specifically had to do with the company having trouble with “an aging product line which [was] negatively impacting RIM’s business and margins”.
In that spirit, today a New York firm has launched a class-action lawsuit against RIM on the behalf of those who had purchased stock over the time those suspect financial statements were made. RIM has said that they plan to “vigorously defend” against the claims, which is to be expected.
This isn’t the first time the maker of BlackBerry smartphones has been in hot water over their financials; a couple of years ago, co-CEO Jim Balsillie got in hot water over back-dated stock options, which resulted in some serious financial backlash. It goes without saying that the outlook for BlackBerry over the long-term is less than peachy, but if the immediate future was clearly misrepresented, this could be bad news from RIM and cast a shadow on their stock for a long time to come.
[via Canoe]