The maker of the iconic BlackBerry mobile phone has its eye on the Triangle.
Research In Motion officials interviewed scores of jobseekers last week during a two-day recruiting event at the Marriott at Research Triangle Park. RIM officials told candidates that the company is investigating opening a facility in this region, but the potential site was not disclosed.
During interviews, applicants were asked where they would prefer to be based, said Kevin Braswell, an engineer who lives in Cary and was laid off from Ericsson in October. "Everybody I know indicated our preference is to stay in RTP," he added.
Based in Ontario, Canada, RIM has North American offices in Irvine, Texas; Redwood City, Calif.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Chicago and Ottawa.
RIM's expansion to this region would be equivalent to a rescue mission by a white knight. The area has bled hundreds of jobs in mass layoffs by Nortel Networks, IBM and other high-profile employers. RIM rival Sony Ericsson last month announced plans to shut its RTP offices and lay off about 425 local workers.
"It would be huge," Braswell said. "If RIM set up a site, I would imagine they would be offering more than 100 positions with relatively high salaries."
It also would fit RIM's strategy. The company has expanded regional offices at sites outside Chicago, near Motorola's headquarters, and in South Florida, where Motorola also has offices. Motorola has been shedding thousands of jobs to cut costs.
It makes sense that RIM would try to snap up former Sony Ericsson workers, said Anil Doradla, who follows RIM's stock for William Blair & Co.
"Those workers know how to build a phone and test a phone, and all those skills are transferrable to another platform," Doradla said. "RIM will be able to exploit that and put some of those workers to good use."
RIM spokesman Jamie Ernst declined to comment. The company is scheduled to report its latest quarterly results next week.
At the Marriott in Durham, the company held two back-to-back career forums lasting eight hours each, where teams of recruiters screened several hundred prospective employees.
A presentation about the 25-year-old company was held against the backdrop of a map showing a red dot for every RIM location along with a green dot for the Triangle.
"RTP is well-recognized as an excellent technology base, so anyone who is growing in the wireless space would have an interest there," said Barry Richards, a senior technology analyst at Paradigm Capital in Toronto.
While sales of smart phones, which provide Internet and e-mail access, have held up during the recession, RIM faces tough competition from Apple's iPhone and others. That is forcing RIM to push harder to develop new devices with better features that attract average consumers, not just corporate customers.
By tapping Sony Ericsson's talent pool, RIM could bolster its efforts "to come up with more innovations more quickly," Doradla said.
