Jim Balsillie Finally Gets Some Good News.... Sort of...

Earlier this week, Jim Balsillie got the bad news that Judge Redfield Baum rejected his proposed reorganization plan for the Phoenix Coyotes. Yesterday, Balsillie, the co-CEO of Blackberry maker Research in Motion Ltd., received some good news for a change (albeit news of the non-hockey variety): Research in Motion reported first fiscal quarter earnings of $643 million ($1.12 per share) on revenue of $3.42 billion. These numbers reflected a 33% and 53% increase over the same period a year ago. Although the numbers exceeded analysts expectations, shares in RIM nonetheless dropped 6% yesterday and closed down again today. At least Balsillie can take comfort in knowing he is still filthy rich.

Coyotes Crushed

According to the Associated Press, Judge Redfield Baum has rejected Jim Balsillie's proposal to buy the Phoenix Coyotes out of Chapter 11. The ruling will eliminate any chance of Jim Balsillie, the man in charge of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion, obtaining an NHL franchise any time soon. The ruling also means that the Coyotes are staying in Phoenix (rejoice Coyotes fans!). Beyond that, it is a bit unclear what will happen to the Coyotes. As of right now, the options are three: 1. a sale to one of the other investors expressing interest; 2. no sale and the team is run by the NHL for a season; or 3. a knight in shining armor comes to the rescue, a la Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins during their bankruptcy.

More to come on this in the next few days, most likely through a post over on SportsJudge Blog as part of my regular column there.