• Reuters, Friday, November 9, 2007 11 AM

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion saw its shares slide 12 percent on Thursday due to mounting fears of cutbacks in subscriptions from the financial sector. The dip actually followed an announcement from Cisco Systems, which said it had seen "dramatic decreases" in orders from U.S. banks during the third quarter. Many financial services firms under-delivered in the third quarter, thanks to the consumer credit crunch. However, Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek points out that RIM is not as heavily dependent on financial services as a company like Cisco. "RIM's subscriber base is 14-15 percent financial services--that's it," he said. "Their largest customer is actually the government." Indeed, government represents 20 percent of RIM's business, while regular consumers represent 30 percent. Even so, Misek said the dip was somewhat appropriate, because the stock had been "overbought." Over the years, RIM's BlackBerry wireless email device has become a must-have for employees in several sectors-- particularly finance and technology, where instant communication is a necessity.

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