UPDATE: Bank of America Downgrades Research In Motion to Underperform; Fundamentals in Precipitous Decline

Bank of America reduces its rating on Research In Motion

from Neutral to Underperform and reduces its price objective from $13.50 to $6. Bank of America comments, " RIM's prospects appear to be turning from bad to worse. This by itself is not a surprise to us, but greater than expected losses, and our growing disbelief in the company's ability to find strategic alternatives swing us from being on the sidelines to lowering our rating to Underperform. In our view, the risk of total value destruction over the next few years is possible as at this point we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.…We do not believe RIM will be able to build its own ecosystem and think this opportunity has passed. In our view the reality is challenging and Microsoft's entry into this market is only likely to make things worse for RIM given MSFT's strong enterprise position." RIMM closed at $9.13 on Thursday.