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The practice of separating the roles of chair and CEO is more common in Canada and the U.K., while U.S. companies have been less enthusiastic about adopting it. Until now, RIM has argued to retain the dual roles because the company trades in the U.S. as well as in Canada.

At the same time, RIM’s seven independent directors had been staunchly supportive of Messrs. Lazaridis and Balsillie and continue to be despite successive quarterly earnings declines, RIM’s evaporating share of the smartphone market, product delays and a precipitous drop in the company’s share price.

Shares of RIM fell 75% in 2011 as the company was beset by corporate setbacks, public relations gaffes and the largest round of layoffs in its history. Even the December announcement that Messrs. Lazaridis and Balsillie would be reducing their annual salary to $1 as a sign of good faith was met with criticism from analysts.

Much of the negative sentiment around RIM in 2011 was caused by the underwhelming launch and poor performance the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer, a device that was supposed to be RIM’s answer to rival Apple Inc.’s iPad. While some analysts expected RIM to sell several million PlayBooks in its first year, to date, RIM has sold only about 850,000.

As RIM’s decline picked up speed towards the end of the year, the company’s co-chief executive tandem remained steadfast that a plan to transition the company’s BlackBerry smartphones to a new operating system, one modeled on the QNX software that powers the BlackBerry PlayBook, would herald a turnaround for the company.

Although the first of the next generation BlackBerrys were expected to be released in the first half of 2012, RIM announced in December the first smartphones to run BB 10 won’t be available until the second half of 2012 at the earliest.

During a conference call in December, RIM’s leaders said the company plans to go on an aggressive marketing blitz in the first half of 2012 to reinvigorate the BlackBerry brand.

Financial Post

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mhartley@nationalpost.com