Recently, BlackBerry is again hit by trouble with its investors. The company was sued by one of its shareholders, accusing a mislead in the state of the company’s future with its BlackBerry 10 smartphone line. Instead of noting the investors in BlackBerry 10’s actual performance in the market, they claimed the company to be “progressing on its financial and operational commitments.”¹ This paints a misleading positive picture of the company and is considered to be deceiving, since “in reality, The BlackBerry 10 was not well-received by the market,”² as stated by the lawsuit. There was even a layoff of around 40 percent of its total workforce.

All shareholders who bought BlackBerry’s stock from Sept 27^th 2012 to Sept 20^th 2013, a period in which the company’s state was misrepresented, were to be represented by this class action suit. It was until Sept 20^th this year that BlackBerry finally discloses its loss and layoffs, which undoubtedly resulted in a significant fall of its share price.

With the rise of touch screen smartphones, BlackBerry is consistently challenged and troubled with innovating differentiable products that attract the market. Along with the unwillingness to reveal its undesirable performance, BlackBerry is failing to adapt.

Sources:

¹ http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/blackberry-hit-with-shareholder-lawsuit-1.1913852

² http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/blackberry-hit-with-securities-shareholder-class-action/article14713440/