RIM redundancies soon
By Asha

Phone giant Research In Motion Limited (RIM) today reported first quarter results for the three months ended May 28, 2011. The Highlights are

• Revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 grew 16% over the same quarter last year
• International revenue1 in Q1 grew 67% year over year
• Gross margin in the quarter was approximately 44%, slightly higher than expected due to product mix
• RIM launched the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in North America and shipped approximately 500,000 units in the first quarter

Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2012 was $4.9 billion, down 12% from $5.6 billion in the previous quarter and up 16% from $4.2 billion in the same quarter of last year. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 78% for hardware revenue, 20% for service and 2% for software and other revenue. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 13.2 million BlackBerry handheld devices and approximately 500,000 BlackBerry Playbook tablets.

Net income for the quarter was $695 million, or $1.33 per share diluted, compared with net income of $934 million, or $1.78 per share diluted, in the prior quarter and net income of $769 million, or $1.38 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year. The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $2.9 billion as of May 28, 2011, compared to $2.7 billion at the end of the previous quarter, an increase of approximately $170 million from the prior quarter

RIM has said that the company will begin a program to streamline operations across the organization, which will include a headcount reduction.