Did CEO's Hockey Obsession Doom RIM?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- When Apple (AAPL) introduced the iPhone to the world in January 2007, Research In Motion (RIMM) dismissed the device as a competitive threat, or so we would learn later.

Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis stated internally, according to reports, that no one would want the equivalent of a personal computer on a phone. People just wanted an email messaging device, he asserted -- a worldview shaped by the company he'd built.

But the death knell for RIM probably came earlier, on Oct. 5, 2006. That was the day the other RIM co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, bid $185 million to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.

That bid began a childish, multiyear quest by Balsillie to buy a hockey team, which diverted his focus from the core RIM business. RIM's competitive position today is arguably unfixable because of Balsillie's quixotic quest.

Balsillie's bid for the Penguins ran from October to December 2006, when he finally withdrew his bid in frustration. But five months later, he announced he was going to buy the Nashville Predators instead.

Again, however, the bid was not to be. After the league fought it and the owner got cold feet, the deal was canceled a year later.

But Balsillie wouldn't let go of his dream. With a net worth much greater then than it is now, he made a $212.5 million offer to buy the Phoenix Coyotes in May 2009. This deal also got derailed several months later.

Did a hockey fantasy kill RIM? Wasn't Jim Balsillie working on his own time to spend his own money, which he has a right to do?

Well, you can call it a coincidence, but here are the numbers:

• Since Balsillie's Oct. 5, 2006 bid for the Penguins, RIM's shares are down 16%.
• Over that same period, the Nasdaq is up 24%, and Apple -- riding the incredible success of its iPhone, which it turns out people did want -- has risen 358%.

Maybe this would have happened anyway. Maybe Apple was just too strong and RIM's directors should shrug their shoulders and say, "Hey, it wasn't our fault because this is just a competitive business."

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