RIM fastest-growing company in world: Fortune
Last Updated: Monday, August 17, 2009 | 3:12 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Related
American business magazine Fortune has named BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion the world's fastest-growing company.
Research in Motion was one of two Canadian companies that made the top 10 of Fortune's 100 Fastest-Growing Companies list after the magazine opened the survey to businesses around the world for the first time.
Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM topped the list, while Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., the world's biggest fertilizer company, came 10th.
RIM has more than quadrupled its workforce in the last four years to about 12,000 people and seen its profits and revenues soar as the company has expanded sales of its BlackBerry devices beyond the corporate world to the highly competitive consumer market.
In its latest quarterly report, Research In Motion reported that its quarterly profit was $643 million, or $1.12 per share US, compared with $482.5 million US, or 84 cents per share a year earlier.
Revenues rose 53 per cent from a year ago to $3.42 billion US.
The Fortune article about RIM compares co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis to Apple head Steve Jobs, and says the two Canadians are "more than holding their own" against Apple's popular iPhone, with RIM retaining "a dominant position in the ultra-fast-growing smartphone business."
RIM holds a 56 per cent share of the $12-billion American smartphone market, and is expected to see three-year average earnings-per-share growth of 84 per cent and revenue growth of 77 per cent. Fortune says this is largely on the strength of RIM's foray into the consumer market.
By comparison, Apple takes 39th place in the magazine's top-100 list.
However, Fortune warns that RIM's competition is "getting increasingly stiff" and RIM will have to keep up with changing consumer demands.
Shares in RIM lost $1.98 to $78.31 in afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, while Potash Corp. shares lost $4.53 to $100.97.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Tories move to curb 'bogus' refugees
- The Conservative government is poised to change the refugee system yet again in an attempt to deter what it considers "bogus" claimants, CBC News has learned. more »
- Children of immigrants challenged at school, home
- By 2016, foreign-born youth and Canadian-born youth from immigrant families will make up a quarter of the country's population, according to predictions by the Canadian Council on Social Development. As their numbers grow, more attention is being paid to their successes and failures. more »
- 2 NDP MPs back final Commons vote to kill gun registry
- Two NDP MPs broke party ranks to vote with the government in the final House of Commons vote on scrapping the long-gun registry. more »
- B.C. house party trial hears from tearful teens
- Two teenagers cried as they testified at the trial of a B.C. woman who was charged after a teen died while her son was hosting a party at her house in 2008. more »
Latest Technology & Science News Headlines
- Online surveillance bill may breach privacy law, charter
- A new bill that would require telecommunications providers to give police subscriber information without a warrant will likely be challenged in the courts if crucial changes aren't made, critics say. more »
- Canada's air pollution experts moved to 'other priorities'
- Environment Canada has drastically cut back on its monitoring of air pollution that can cause health problems for Canadians, reassigning scientists involved in that monitoring to "other priorities." more »
- Online privacy erosion dismays critics
- Government and law enforcement access to people's electronic communications is the norm in dictatorships around the world, but the same intrusion appears to be creeping into North America, say opponents of a new online surveillance bill tabled in the House Tuesday. more »
- Venus slowdown puzzles planetary scientists
- Scientists have detected a sudden and dramatic slowdown in the rotation of Earth's sister planet Venus. more »
Bob McDonald's Blog
Glacier Discovery Walk: Will the visitor centre enhance the view? Feb. 14, 2012 9:22 AM Environment minister Peter Kent has announced the construction of a new Glacier Discovery Walk and visitor centre on the Icefields Parkway in Jasper National Park. It raises the issue of how to balance commercial development in our National Parks against the preservation of the last refuges of wilderness.
Quirks & Quarks
- February 18: Guitar Hero, or Guitar Zero? Feb. 15, 2012 10:53 AM An NYU professor of psychology describes how he was able to learn to play the guitar in midlife in spite of a limited musical aptitude, and what it tells us about how our brains learn.
Latest Features
- Drummond report on Ontario calls for cutbacks
- Barefoot girl's icy trek not blamed on babysitter
- 2 NDP MPs back final Commons vote to kill gun registry
- Immigrants the proudest Canadians, poll suggests
- Honduras prison fire kills hundreds
- Bodyguard hired for bully victim in Fredericton
- Canadian housing market cools in January
- Legalize pot, say former B.C. attorneys general
- Russians' abusive plane tirade to cost them $19K
