Don't Approach RIM With Caution - Don't Approach at All

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The nerve endings of traders have to run red and raw when a company with modest problems stops giving financial forecasts. But when the company announcing that it's clamming up is in an utterly fractured state, the lack of future communication is all defining.

And so it is with Research in Motion(RIMM) . Battered by Apple(AAPL) , Google(GOOG) and missteps, RIM reported the latest in a line of dangerously bad earnings and announced that they would no longer issue financial forecasts.

Proceed with caution. In fact: don't even proceed. For a company this troubled, radio silence is a deal killer.

Curiously -- almost comically -- Marketwatch spun it as a positive, noting that RIM is developing a reputation for being "forthright even though they're not giving forecasts anymore." Uh, what? RIM's management is either new or, as of yesterday, fired. They haven't been there long enough to develop a reputation. And zipping their lips is hardly a good start.