Skip to main content

Well, this is a little strange: BGR noted on Thursday that Research In Motion Ltd. posted on its Twitter account that it had added more than 1 million new subscribers in less than three weeks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (or EMEA) - big gains that imply the BlackBerry maker might be doing better than its recently quarterly report (and stock selloff) suggest.

Yet, there has been no official word from RIM on this important news, even though it might have contributed to the stock's 4 per cent rise on Thursday.

Chris Umiastowski, the former analyst who now writes a blog, finds it all a little puzzling. "I'm skeptical about it because the Twitter account looks like it is managed by some social media employee at RIM, and it's quite possible that the tweet was an error, or not approved, etc, etc.," he said.

"But if it IS correct, I think it should have been put in a press release and RIM should have made a big effing deal about it, seriously. Why pass up a chance to tell the world that they're wrong about your stock?"

The way he looks at it, 1 million subscriber gains in three weeks means a run rate of 4.3 million gains for the quarter - and that's just the EMEA region.

RIM's share price has fallen 52.8 per cent this year alone, and is now down a total of 82 per cent from its record high in 2008 over concerns that rising competition from the iPhone and Android-based phones are chipping away at its market share.

You can now track a stock's return over various time periods using Globe Investor's Watchlist. Go to your Watchlist and choose the new Per Cent Performance view. Read more: Watchlist: Better ways to measure portfolio performance.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe