Research in Motion Swirling Down 8%

On Friday, Research in Motion RIMM announced that it would record a pre-tax provision in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 of approximately $485 million, $360 million after tax, related to its inventory valuation of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. The battered tech company also said it no longer expects to meet its full year adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance of $5.25-6.00. While the company is still in the process of finalizing its third quarter financial results, it shipped approximately 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones in the third quarter ended November 26, 2011 which was in line with previous guidance of between 13.5-14.5 million. However, investors did not like what they heard, as shares of Research in Motion are trading down over 7% at $17.18. At one point shares broke below $17 per share. Research in Motion guided third quarter earnings per share at $1.20-1.40 versus analyst estimates of $1.20 and guided revenues $5.3-5.6 billion versus analyst estimates of $5.31 billion. Research In Motion designs, manufactures, and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. The company, through the development of integrated hardware, software, and services, provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information, including email, phone, short messaging service, and Internet and Intranet-based applications and browsing.