Possible writedowns ahead as RIM inventory hits $US1 billion

More bad news for troubled BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, with reports that the company has accumulated $US1 billion in unsold inventories. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the figure represents a sharp year-on-year increase from $US618 million, despite a $US485 million writedown of its Playbook inventory in December and a $US267 million writedown of BlackBerry inventory […]

Andrew Sadauskas 31 May, 2012

More bad news for troubled BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, with reports that the company has accumulated $US1 billion in unsold inventories.

According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the figure represents a sharp year-on-year increase from $US618 million, despite a $US485 million writedown of its Playbook inventory in December and a $US267 million writedown of BlackBerry inventory in March.

The $US1 billion inventory figure represents the cost of devices stored by the company in its own warehouses, and does not include any stock held by distributors, retailers, or carriers.

The inventory news comes after the company announced plans to slash 10% of its global workforce earlier this week.