Former RIM Co-CEO Sells All RIM/BlackBerry Shares

BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) has gone through quite a lot of changes, including a name change from Research In Motion. What is interesting is that its former co-CEO Jim Balsillie is no longer a shareholder. A Schedule 13G filing with the SEC on Thursday morning shows that Balsillie has eliminated his entire stake.

Balsillie was formerly one of the largest shareholders, with more than 26 million shares. The date is very delayed, as well as the as-of date, which turns out to be Dec. 31, 2012. Balsillie's opportunity costs might have been huge. We do not know at what date the sales started, but RIM shares closed out 2012 at $11.87 and peaked above $14.00 earlier in December. Before that, all you have to do is to go back as recently as November 21 to see RIM shares back under $10.00. The lowest price of the fourth-quarter was listed as $7.27, and that was on October 1.

We would note that Michael Lazaridis shows in the same sort of filing that he held some 29,904,297 shares as of December 31, 2012.

What is interesting is that BlackBerry shares are up 3% at $14.40, even after the Balsillie filing was made known. BlackBerry shares have traded in a 52-week trading range of $6.22 to $18.32.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Electronics, Corporate Governance, Insider Activity, Technology, Technology Companies, Telecom & Wireless Tagged: BBRY, featured