“At this week’s BlackBerry World trade show, everyone expected the top headliner to be the company’s just-released PlayBook tablet and its new software offerings,” Peter Pachal writes for PC Magazine. “As it turned out, the gadget ended up taking second spot to a surprise guest: Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer.”
“Ballmer came out [on stage] during RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis’ keynote to announce a partnership that would bring Microsoft’s Bing search engine to BlackBerries,” Pachal writes. “Does RIM know what it’s in for, though? There’s considerable doubt over whether the company’s strategy and platforms can be successful over the next couple of years. If they’re not, Microsoft could end up owning RIM.”
“‘Will Microsoft buy RIM? That is a possibility and a fast track for Microsoft to gain a foothold in the mobile hardware business,’ says Harry Wang, director of mobile research at Parks Associates,” Pachal reports. “‘RIM’s market capitalization is only $25 billion and Microsoft has $48 billion in cash. If RIM’s value drops to $15 billion, it will become an attractive target for Microsoft. Maybe Steve Ballmer was planting that seed during his keynote appearance at Blackberry World,’ [Wang added.]”
Pachal writes, “Can you imagine Windows Phone 7 in two years, powered by the twin engines of Nokia’s global reach and RIM’s enterprise base? It would be a powerhouse platform, the stuff of dreams for Ballmer—and nightmares for Apple and Google.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ha, ha – good one, Pachal!
Read more in the full article here.
Fabrice Taylor writes for The Globe and Mail, “One of these days, if it hasn’t happened already, Steve Ballmer, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie will gather for a quiet lunch or a pleasant stroll and discuss what seems inevitable: Microsoft buying Research In Motion.”
“Both companies share an irksome problem called Apple. Both companies recently disappointed investors, in part because of this problem. Both companies are struggling because they can’t innovate with the vitality of Steve Jobs and Co. And both companies are desperate for a solution,” Taylor writes. “You could even argue that it’s a matter of life or death.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Two wrongs don’t make an iPhone or an iPad killer.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz,” “Carl H.” and “Harry B.” for the heads up.]
If Micros**t buys RIM, BlackBerry will disappear in a couple of years.
Mmmm… I think Micros**t wants to get rid of the competitors one company at a time, as usual.
“If RIM’s value drops to $15 billion, it will become an attractive target for Microsoft.”
No better way to achieve that price point than to announce a partnership with M$.
Ballmer: “Hey, RIM might not be a great buy, but at $15B, it was CHEAP!”
There’s no strategic advantage to buying RIM. Therefore, expect Microsoft to do it.
The desperation is palpable.
That’s right. Just like Bing. Just like MSN and Windows Live. Just like Microsoft stores.
No good reason for any of them. They all hemorrhage cash. So, yes, MS will probably buy RIM.
Let’s hope so. More money wasted.
Wouldn’t that tick off Nokia just a bit? Not that it would cause MS to stop & think. I mean, MS already has several companies walking around with a blade between their shoulders.
Exactly. But don’t worry, I’m sure Microsoft plays (fair) for sure!
As long as MS pays Nokia 10-figures for using its software, Nokia’s a happy camper.
Like toilet paper to a toilet bowl.
To be honest, this marriage not only is logical, but also highly recommended. RIM is/was truly innovative, have plenty of patents. Their smartphones stood apart from the pack, until dethroned by Apple. When I replaced my BlackBerry with the original iPhone, I could immediately recognise certain RIM influence. Someone at Apple was impressed with what RIM was doing (aluminium brush finish, icons over black background, solid feel etc.) and took it to the next and more advanced level. But the bits of inspiration still lingers, kudos is where the kudos’ due. What the RIM truly lacked was a single CEO with a calmer brain and that vision thingy. Instead they were found lazy like Adobe.
MS is probably poised to take over RIM, I wish it was Apple though, but maybe RIM doesn’t have much to bring to that table for Apple at that price.
Yes, you got it, Apple copied the Blackberry. I believe, really, I do.
It is a logical marriage. Like two dinosaurs, unfortunately their conjugal union will still be a dinosaur, not one of those fleet footed mammals that are taking over the world.
A M$/RIM deal would be right up Ballmer’s alley, after all he has said how much he likes plastic buttons on phones versus touchscreens.
Another “strategic alliances,” brought to you by Men In Suits.™
This is a forgone conclusion.
Buffoon Ballmer is pre-programmed to make all the wrong moves.
Google and Apple will be pissing themselves laughing.
Ballmer’s only strategy is to piss money about like it’s water and hope something happens. Not really a strategy at all…
A lead weight for a drowning man.
Misery loves company.
Actually, in this case, I think the saying is “the company loves misery.”
Ballmer: “Listen Mike. Let’s be honest. You haven’t shown an ability to innovate and compete with Apple lately. They’re eating your lunch!”
Lazaridis: “Come on Steve, we may be losing the market to Apple but you looked like such a fool laughing at the iPhone in 2007. Comparing the Motorola Q to the iPhone? Hilarious! You had the look of a deer in the headlights.”
Ballmer: “OK, Mike. You’re right. We’re both sucking wind. I just can’t come up with anything that holds a candle to the work Apple is putting out.”
Lazaridis: “Honestly, neither can I.”
Ballmer: “Since we can’t compete individually, let’s join forces!”
Lazaridis: “Brilliant!”
Of the phones that were around at the time of the original iPhone launch the closest relative to it and therefore a draw for its inspiration was the Palm Treo and Palm line of PDAs. In no way was Apple influenced by the RIM design – that was reserved for Eric T Mole & his team at Google.
I owned a Palm and HP phone running Windows Mobile 6. I knew there and then that Microsoft was destined for the scrap heap. WM6 is positively the worst mobile OS I’ve ever used. It was no wonder that RIM was entrenched in the minds of corporate users – Blackberries were streets ahead of WM6. Palm as usual had good software let down by terrible failure prone hardware that was plasticky to the extreme.
When Apple launched the iPhone it was like a spaceman had descended from the clouds and was fighting off cavemen using bows & arrows with the Star Trek phaser. It was no contest. WM, BB & Palm remain decimated to this day.
“When Apple launched the iPhone it was like a spaceman had descended from the clouds and was fighting off cavemen using bows & arrows with the Star Trek phaser.” _LOL Funniest thing I have heard in a while 🙂
The 3 or more years that it would take for this to even start to get off the ground, get Win 7 on their phones and establish a touchscreen product that has any chance of traction at all (unlike their present products) I really can’t see how RIM will still have any real impact in the market place. People buy into its old fashioned traditional keyboard concept with young women in particular deceiving themselves that they are mimicking business pros as they email their mates about some guy they fancy. Not sure that strategy will have any legs by that stage which means that turning it around will be near impossible and only damage Microsoft even further as an image to buy into.
They a movie of this years ago, I think it call dumb and dumber.
Microsoft/RIM…A match made in suck.
There is no gravity, that’s just Microsoft/Rim sucking!
Microsoft: Turning down the Good, and turning up the Suck.
Microsoft: Welcome to The Suck
The problem with an Apple acquisition, is there is a lot of reluctance in IT to throw in with Apple. In addition, those that are open minded, are already well down the road to a mobile strategy that takes in either Android or Apple. An acquisition by Apple makes no sense, there’s no payoff. For Micro$haft, it could make some sense, but they have to move very quickly as Rim is about to fall off the edge of the world as far as enterprise is concerned in the next 6 to 9 months, max. Even then, it’s not a sure thing, as there is that little thing called App’s that winblows doesn’t have.
Both companies are struggling…good idea to combine them into one struggling company – the new mobile devices will run RIMdows.
If they do, Nokia is going to be pissed! lol
I’ve seen others make this same mistake. Heck, Microsoft and Nokia invested billions in this mistake. The error is in thinking that Nokia’s business is Nokia and now, RIM’s business is RIM. They’re not. Their products and services can’t just be swapped out as their brand.
Nokia has a global reach with the products they sell. They make, what the world considers to be, the best feature phones. Old school tanks that are cheap, but make calls and last forever. Replace those products with WP07 phones, and you have a different product. You’re no longer selling to their global reach, but to customers who, if they wanted a smartphone from 2007, they would’ve bought a smartphone in 2007.
The same is true with RIM. They sell mobile handheld typewriters. This situation is even worse than the Nokia one. With the Nokia deal, Microsoft is paying for Nokia to try to sell WP07. But if Microsoft bought RIM, either Microsoft shuts down WP07, or they shut down BlackBerry. It’s like having a choice between jumping on one ship that never launched and jumping on another that is sinking.
More importantly though Ballmer needs better direction on this. We already have 2 CEOs destroying RIM, and doing a fantastic job at it. We don’t need a 3rd. Ballmer should stay focused on destroying Microsoft for us.
When these half-wit companies merge, and start babbling about “synergies,” I’m reminded of the famous George Bernard Shaw quote. To a woman who wrote to him that she wanted to have children with him – “think of the child with your brains and my beauty.” he replied, “But what if he were to have your brains and my beauty?”
Microsoft would not be well served to buy RIM. However, that would not preclude it from happening.
I have to say though, given the level of ineptitude displayed by the 2 headed CEO of RIM, even Ballmer would be better.
Watching RIM is like watching a ship sinking. The sad part is – They have no idea there is a problem.
At least Ballmer knows they are in trouble!
They are three Morons with a Pile of Cash to Burn!
“Turn off the camera. This interview is over.”
Intresting article. RIM is doing quite well for the rest of the world. Doubt they will sink in the next couple of decades.
MS didnt have to buy Nokia. They wont buy rim for their phone hardware business. RIM phone hardware can’t run windows phone 7 as it is too underpowered. Nokia’s hardware isn’t much better. QNX on their tablets is of no value to ms either. If ms did buy rim it would be for IP and/or customers. But because ms dosen’t have a competitive software offering at the moment there isn’t much chance of acquiring/retaining rims customers. So that leaves IP. MS has it’s foot in rims door and rim is on the dole. It won’t take long for ms executives to infiltrate rim at the highest levels. No need to spend 15-25 billion on this minor acquisition.
Actually, i’d bet FaceBook buys RIM next year. To jump in to the big time with the FaceBook Phone. you know they do not want to depend on Google for an Android OS product.