Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) said this morning in a statement that it would ask regulators in the U.S. and Canada to look into a false report about BlackBerry Z10 retail return rates.
Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) maker and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) both refuted Thursday’s report from Detwiler Fenton, a research and investment firm, that BlackBerry Z10 handsets were being returned at a very high rate.
“Sales of the BlackBerry Z10 are meeting expectations and the data we have collected from our retail and carrier partners demonstrates that customers are satisfied with their devices,” Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement this morning. “Return rate statistics show that we are at or below our forecasts and right in line with the industry. To suggest otherwise is either a gross misreading of the data or a willful manipulation.”
The BlackBerry maker said in the next couple of days it would officially ask the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission to review the report from the research firm. Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) also said that Detwiler Fenton refused to make its methodology or its report to investors available for its view, even after it disputed the firm’s findings.
“These materially false and misleading comments about device return rates in the United States harm BlackBerry and our shareholders,” Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) Chief Legal Officer Steve Zipperstein said in a statement. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion about the merits of the many competing products in the smartphone industry, but when false statements of material fact are deliberately purveyed for the purpose of influencing the markets, a red line has been crossed.”
At the moment of this writing, shares of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) were up 0.66 percent in pre-market trading at the NASDAQ.
