Wall Street Watch Friday: BlackBerry Was Sweeter Than Expected

Reports of the death of Research In Motion (RIMM) may be premature.

The company behind the once iconic BlackBerry smartphone posted its latest quarterly results after Thursday's market close.

It wasn't pretty: Revenue tumbled 31% to $2.9 billion. RIM posted a loss -- reversing a year-ago profit -- for the third quarter in a row. However, analysts were expecting a larger loss than the adjusted deficit that RIM reported. Wall Street was also braced for a 40% plunge in revenue.

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RIM isn't perfect, but it still has roughly 80 million BlackBerry accounts under its belt. RIM also has $2.3 billion in the bank, so it's not as if the company's going away in the near term.

Then again, the company has a credibility problem with consumers and now even enterprises have their doubts. RIM is also targeting its fourth consecutive quarterly deficit for the current quarter.

It could be worse. It could be a lot worse. It could be Palm.

Other Things Worth Watching

• Nike (NKE) also posted quarterly financials after Thursday's market close. The athletic footwear giant saw its revenue climb nearly 10% to $6.7 billion, but profitability slipped. Margins have been deteriorating at Nike on a year-over-year basis for nearly two years. Increases in labor and material costs haven't been all that easy to pass on to its lace-tying customers in this iffy economic state. Everyone seemed to be giving Nike some serious heat earlier this summer on high prices for its new LeBron James shoes, but the shrinking margins show that Nike isn't being all that greedy after all.

• The next time you wish someone "Happy Birthday" on Facebook (FB) feel free to raise the stakes by sending over gift as well. The world's largest social networking website rolled out a gift-giving feature on Thursday. Teaming up with what will likely be a growing number of retail partners, friends will be able to send one another gift cards to various merchants and service providers. It shouldn't come as a surprise. Facebook bought gift-giving app developer Karma earlier this year. It's still refreshing to see Facebook flex its e-commerce muscle.

Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does not own shares in any of the stocks in this article. The Motley Fool owns shares of Facebook. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Facebook and NIKE. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended creating a diagonal call position in NIKE.