You Know Things Are Bad When ... RIM Selling Jet

Pity poor, poor RIM, which will soon have to make do with just one of its two private jets. Bloomberg spoke with two sources who revealed that the decision to sell the nine-passenger Dassault Aviation SA F50EX is part of the company's plan to trim operating costs by a cool $1 billion. Shoppers willing to fork over between $6 million and $7 million will get a 13-year-old jet outfitted with "gold-plated hardware" that costs RIM about $3,400 an hour to operate. That means RIM will be saving an estimated $2.1 million a year to operate the plane, but it won't all be gravy, as its commercial travel expenses will rise. (More RIM stories.)