RIM says BlackBerry services restored after outages in some regions

Research In Motion said in a statement Friday that it has restored BlackBerry services after a brief blackout period for some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Research In Motion (TSX:RIM) said in a statement Friday that it has restored BlackBerry services after a brief blackout period for some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

These users could not access email, the Internet, or instant messaging for a few hours, according to reports.

“Our apologies to any customers impacted by the BlackBerry service issue today. We can confirm that services have been restored and are now operating normally,” RIM said in a brief statement.

Earlier this week, the BlackBerry maker suffered another blow Monday as reports stated Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) will not give its employees the choice of a Blackberry for a new smartphone.

According to press reports, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently emailed all of Yahoo’s full time and part time employees in the U.S., promising them a new Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Samsung, Nokia (NYSE:NOK), or HTC (TPE:2498) smartphone, through a program called “Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun!”

Through the program, Yahoo employees will have a choice of phones: iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X, HTC EVO 4G LTE, or Nokia Lumia 920. Yahoo is also reportedly going to pay its employees data and phone bills and will discontinue IT support for Blackberry phones.

Last month, press reports said that RIM could be looking to offload cloud services company NewBay as well as shed other minor assets as part of a strategic review process.

The company’s spokespeople declined to comment on the report.

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The Waterloo, Ontario-based company was once a pioneer in the smartphone industry but has lost out in recent years to more-advanced devices such as the iPhone and devices based on Google’s Android software.

RIM acquired NewBay, which provides photo, video, and social networking tools for smartphones and computers, in October 2011 for around $100 million. The acquisition was a huge part of the former RIM leadership’s plan to alter course and boost service revenue.

Earlier this year, RIM’s co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resigned, ushering in former Siemens executive Thorsten Heins.

Heins has initiated a strategic review process and is focused on delivering a new line-up of devices that run on RIM’s new BB10 operating system, in the first-quarter of 2013.

Deborah Bacal
Proactive Investors
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About the Author

Deborah started as an equities reporter in the Toronto office of Proactiveinvestors in August 2010, before becoming deputy editor. Prior to this, she was deputy editor of private equity trade journal unquote” UK in London, England, where she graduated with a Masters in International Journalism from City University in 2008. She has covered a range of topics in finance since starting her career, writing in depth about both public and private markets. Deborah has also completed stints at The Times, The Independent and The Economist.

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