RIM Shares Keep Falling After PlayBook Delay; Fuel for Jaguar and Other Hostile Bidders?

Shares of BlackBerry developer Research in Motion fell 1.4 percent Friday after the company again delayed its PlayBook software upgrade to February.

RIM shares were at 21, down 28 cents, not much higher than their 52-week low of $19.29, after the Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry maker said earlier the PlayBook tablet won't have BlackBerry messenger.

Activist investor Victor Alboini of Toronto's Jaguar Financial, who has taken a nearly 5 percent stake in RIM, told IBTimes has contacted investors with about a 10 percent share about seeking a shakeup.

A devoted BlackBerry user himself, Alboini said RIM made a mistake releasing the PlayBook tablet without RIM's trademark messenging capability.

Alboini said he wants new management at RIM or for someone else to take over the company. New York investor Carl Icahn, who helped shake up Motorola, said he does not plan to buy into the company. Motorola Mobility, the part of old Motorola that sells smartphones, reported sales of only

RIM acquired U.S. developer QNX last year to obtain its OS for tablets. The company has sold only about 700,000 PlayBooks to date, including 200,000 in its most recent quarter, when Apple reported selling 9.25 million iPad2s.

RIM just concluded a developers conference where it was expected to detail how it would catch up to Apple. As well, the company is still reeling from a worldwide service glitch that interrupted messenging traffic for three days starting Oct. 10.

Subsequently, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in a conference call, We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to prevent something like this from happening again.

Friday's swoon brings the 2011 loss on RIM shares to 64 percent.