Instead, there will be focus on whether RIM's cash reserves – expected to increase slightly from the $2.1-billion RIM had at the end of the fourth quarter – can carry the company through the transition, since sales are expected to keep dropping even as RIM launches a new set of phones. In any case, new options such as licensing the new operating system to hardware rivals are unlikely to have any near-term effect on the company's earnings. But with a declining business, dwindling sales, and an unproven turnaround strategy based on a new software platform called BlackBerry 10, analysts see few near-term buyers, and are not expecting any meaningful update in this area. RIM has hired two investment banks, RBC Dominion Securities and JPMorgan, to help the company's management figure out strategic alternatives, leading many to conclude that the company is now for sale. A greater-than-expected writedown could severely worsen the operating loss that RIM has already warned is very likely. There is also the issue of whether there will be another inventory writedown – such as the brutal $485-million hit in December related to RIM's weak-selling PlayBook tablet – as unsold batches of RIM's latest BlackBerry 7 devices pile up unsold in warehouses. "They should rip the band-aid off quickly …and let the remaining staff know they are essential to the company's success." "This is the worst way to restructure a company," Mr. Kris Thompson, an analyst with National Bank Financial, says that means the remaining employees are left wondering whether they're the next out the door and frantically sending out résumés. First, the company has confirmed it is in the middle of large-scale layoffs as part of a global restructuring aimed at saving $1-billion by the end of the fiscal year, but it isn't clear how many employees are getting let go and when. There are several main areas that analysts and investors will be watching. But there will be plenty of interest in what details the Waterloo, Ont.- based company's top executives choose to divulge as the BlackBerry maker's situation continues to grow darker. has warned earnings will be ugly when it reports first-quarter results after markets close on Thursday.
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