Jim Flaherty: ‘RIM is a Very Innovative, Successful Company’
Canada’s Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, is a supporter of Research In Motion. Over the weekend, Jim described the embattled RIM as “a very innovative, successful company.”
With RIM’s stock down 90% from its 2008 high of more than $140, the potential for an acquisition is higher than ever. To shroud another quarter of anemic performance, CEO Thorsten Heins threw around the word “partnership” and didn’t rule out selling RIM—in parts or as a whole. So Jim Flaherty came forth to address the question: would Canada allow RIM—one of the country’s largest tech giants ever—to be bought by a foreign?
His answer was, in essence, yes. While Jim stated that he would “like RIM obviously to be successful as a Canadian company,” he pointed out that “RIM is a private company that trades and has shareholders,” ultimately acknowledging that RIM “will be the masters of their own destiny.”
Photo: The Globe and Mail
