Research In Motion Ltd. said two executives, including Senior Vice President Alan Brenner, are departing as the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone considers strategic options that include a sale of the company.
Brenner, senior vice president of the BlackBerry platform, will depart after a transition period, and Alistair Mitchell, a vice president for the BlackBerry instant-messaging service, has already left, Tenille Kennedy, a spokeswoman for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, wrote yesterday in an e-mailed statement.
Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins said last week that the company is weighing shifts ranging from licensing its BlackBerry software to an outright sale after recording its fifth straight quarterly sales shortfall. RIM is refocusing on business customers and scaling back an emphasis on consumers after failing to keep legions of users from shifting to Apple Inc. iPhones and devices that sport Google Inc.’s Android.
RIM was unchanged at $12.67 yesterday at the New York close. The shares have fallen 77 percent in the past year.