i-mate boss blames 'fraud' for company's demise

Jim Morrison, CEO of premium Windows Mobile manufacturer i-mate, has claimed that a $15m fraud is what killed the company, rather than any failure to sell enough phones. The ever-vocal Mr Morrison told Arabian Business that an un-named board member was behind the fraud which killed the company, and that he won't be taking it …

[ForthIsNotDead]

Interesting...

I'd like to hear him elaborate on the nature of the fraud, although, from what I understand, if someone on the inside is doing a deal to short your stock, you are f**ked any which way you turn.

If enough people have a vested interest in your stock value falling, it's gonna fall. All it takes is a few rumors after hours in the bars and clubs and whorehouses.

Short selling should be banned forever. It's evil and breaks companies, as we have seen in the last 18 months during the financial crises.

[Lloyd]

So

i-mate is as dead as um... Jim Morrison then ?

[Bryan Anderson]

Design was the problem

I worked for a very large mobile distribution company in 2006/2007 and we had a close relationship with iMate and I got to test drive a number of pre-production phones. Their problem was that we wouldn't take any of them on to sell as they were all pig ugly - screens too small with huge surrounds in the time when screens were getting bigger and touch-screens were becomming more in fashion.

Technology-wise they were okay, but no-one was ever going to buy them. That was iMate's main problem.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Ohn "short selling" is "fraud" now, is it?

Hell no. It's called "estimating the likelihood of the company going titsup", then acting on that estimation. Anyone who wants to "ban this forever" should maybe learn what speculation is all about, (Or be consistent and ban "long selling" too).

Apparently, said estimation was pretty correct, too.

If the share price on the open market goes down a notch or two, this should have _no impact_ on ongoing business.

[Hate2Register]

Colourful...

It's nice to read a story about a mobile phone manufacturer which has gone bust , was ripped off by its own directors, and didn't actually manage to sell any phones.

It's nice to have a baseline against which even your most cretinous reader would compare favourably. This is such a baseline..

[Graham Bartlett]

Jim Morrison?

"This is the end, beautiful friend, the end..."

[GrantB]

imates - Windows Mobile

I used to see iMates around.. before the iPhone came out and every CEO/CIO that was not carrying a Blackberry seems to have made the switch.

i-mates business model was selling mobile hardware made by somebody else (who could sell them cheaper/better directly) and adding software made by Microsoft. That model is looking a little strained at the moment with MS being a year or two behind everybody else.

Basically is anybody making money of Windows Mobile? I know that Acer WinMobile phones have been dumped on the market, and I see the odd HTC one, but basically it looks like the 'Plays for Sure' MP3 player market; and we know how that turned out.

MS will no doubt extend Apple envy to bring out their own phone to make sure they really kill off what remains of the market. And the rest of the world will continue to buy iPhones, Blackberry and Android.