Sean Farhy writes for Seeking Alpha, “Here’s a list of reasons why RIMM is in play:
• RIMM has no debt, a future p/e of 9x and future price to revenues of less than 1x.
• RIMM”s market cap is now under $15 Billion.
• RIMM controls 8% of the hardware market, and 25% of the smart phone market.
• RIMM has excellent branding and inroads when it comes to the “corporate client.”
• RIMM’s new Playbook note pad could make an excellent product line for one of the companies listed below to venture into.
• QNX, RIMM’s new Blackberry operating system, is where the bulk of RIMM’s R&D is being spent. A discontinuation of QNX and elimination of more employees could add value to the equity side by reducing expenses and preserving assets.
• RIMM has over $4 in cash per share.
Farhy writes that one of the potential acquirers is Apple: “Apple would certainly be ironic, as five years ago there were only two players (APPL & RIMM) in the now extremely crowded smart phone space. Apple could conceivably buy it to get RIMM out of the way, as it’s been a thorn in its side; to enter into the corporate and business side of the market, making it more than a ‘gadget’ company; and/or to create an iPhone / Blackberry combination that could be a dominant force in the smart phone market and winning back market share from Google’s Android. I still view this as extremely unlikely union because of the Playbook factor, but I have warmed more to this becoming a potential reality after RIMM’s earnings.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple has already entered the corporate market with both iPhone and iPad. They don’t need RIM. Now, what “PlayBook factor?” It’s already dead (see: Beleaguered RIM slashes PlayBook production plans – June 22, 2011). All any company would need to do is mercifully pull the plug. And Apple is already winning back share from Google’s derivative Android.
Farhy writes, “Microsoft is our most logical choice…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Taunting Ballmer T. Clown with yet another stupid acquisition idea is decidedly cruel, but oh so enjoyable.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
This sounds like a desperate call for someone to try to pump the stock before they dump their remaining shares. No way Apple buys RIM unless it’s to acquire patents.
I think you’re right. Or the guy is insane.
Or the guy is attention-seeker (thinks it will raise demand for his services, hence more money for him).
.. I vote INSANE.
Dead on. Apple buys brains and patents, not products. I don’t know enough about it to know what patents RIM holds, or who their brain trust is, but it’s not Apple’s pattern to buy a company just to get them out of the way. I agree this is a rumor to try to bump stock price.
This is an excellent rumor to short Apple on. Wall Street is ready to believe Apple will catch a falling knife or integrate the BB keyboard into iPhone 5. This is why Apple is such an amusing stock to play. Any vague rumor that doesn’t make the least bit of sense will start the Apple Shorting Machine in motion.
OK, get ready Apple bulls, I’m coming to take you down a few points. Apple buys RIM and an already despised Final Cut Pro X together. Beautiful. Apple again is an irresistable short-sell. La-di-da.
“• RIMM has no debt, a future p/e of 9x and future price to revenues of less than 1x.
• RIMM controls 8% of the hardware market, and 25% of the smart phone market”
Sure they do…assuming that their rapidly declining results and guidance magically flatten out and then return to the heady growth of days gone by. The stock is “cheap” for the same reasons Nokia is “affordable.” Also, all the cash in the world doesn’t mean anything if future results are highly suspect.
Not gonna happen. Please APPLE, just let them die
Don’t worry.
After RIM goes bankrupt, THEN Apple might buy the patents.
Won’t happen. People always say Apple will buy other companies, but they don’t.
Why catch a falling knife?
APPL doesn’t buy moribund companies. APPL buys bright young things with a future and a terrific idea or two. RIMM is perfect for M$, though. LOL!
ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!
More likely they get added to the garbage heap at Microsloth.
I don’t think Apple buys antiques.
Only in the minds of brain challenged anal-ysts and RIMM executives does Apple see BB as a thorn in its side. Here in the real world, Apple doesn’t think of BB at all, and RIMM hasn’t planted so much as a hangnail on Apple.
“Thorn in the side”, or “poop under the boot”?
Utter tripe!
“• RIMM controls 25% of the smart phone market.”
Yes, but 25% and falling. It doesn’t “control” anything as customers are not that sticky.
“• RIMM has excellent branding and inroads when it comes to the “corporate client.”
Yes, but Apple’s branding is better.
“• RIMM’s new Playbook note pad could make an excellent product line for one of the companies listed below to venture into.”
Not to Apple.
“• QNX, RIMM’s new Blackberry operating system, is where the bulk of RIMM’s R&D is being spent. A discontinuation of QNX and elimination of more employees could add value to the equity side by reducing expenses and preserving assets.”
So, this numbnut wants to get rid of RIM’s attempt at a Hail Mary like Palm’s WebOS was, in order to save money? Who is he fooling?
Apple has ZERO interest in buying RIM, anyone could figure that one out.
Well said… what’s the point of QNX??? A Buyout, to Apple would be worthless… buy hardware and software that is substandard?? This notion of ‘buying marketshare’ is so stuck in the 90’s… Apple has the resources to do anything it wants.. the only benefit to snatching up competitors is, really, anti-competitive! Now there’s an idea from the 90’s that really worked!
Won’t be a nice fit for the Cupertino culture. Next?
Agreed.. if MS bought RIMM, they could drop the stupid keyboard, and just do ‘BB Torches with WP7’,
I like the keyboards, actually, but they don’t work on modern smartphones… you give up too much with the QWERTY candybars.
“Apple would certainly be ironic, as five years ago there were only two players (APPL & RIMM) in the now extremely crowded smart phone space.”
He’s got Apple’s stock ticker (AAPL) and the date of the iPhone launch wrong (2007 was not “five years ago”). Plus Microsoft and Palm both were, however ineptly, in the smart phone market back then too. Nice reporting, Farty! You stink…
This is funny. Why buy a dying company when it’s cheaper when it’s dead. But then again, why buy a dead company when it’s proven it did not have the capability to survive? Better just leave it alone….
RIMM’s patent portfolio would be a nice acquisition for Apple, along with all of the Blackberry customers.
That would be an excellent use of AAPL’s cash. Pay RIMM a premium for the patent portfolio and lease it back for $1…
answer=no. Combining companies is not easy. Apple doesn’t need the aggravation.
GOOGLE
If Google wants out of the patent troll debacle that it has put itself in, buying RIMM would a huge step in getting it out.
That plus it puts it in the same hardware game as Apple. Something it desperately needs to get out of the bottom feeder hardware situation that it has put itself in.
I think Google will make a play for RIMM. It makes the most strategic sense.
Excuse me but who is RIMM?
I know RIM…. The article never once gets the companies name right, and we are to believe anything from him?
RIMM is how Research In Motion (RIM) is referred on the stock market. Apple is APPL. Since they are talking of market share they used the stock names, notice the use of APPL and RIMM throughout?
Except that Apple’s stock market designation is AAPL.
This analyst is a moron! Future earnings and p/e?!? RIM has just shot those out the window, and what the company will earn in profits (if anything) is a wild stab in the dark.
Buy RIM and then cancel QNX? So Apple should buy RIM and just soldier on with its current products, not trying to develop any next-gen OS for Blackberries? Wow. No wonder no real company will hire this guy. He’d have it shut down by year’s end.
Apple executives must laugh for a long, long time when they read things like this.
“Apple would certainly be ironic, as five years ago there were only two players (APPL & RIMM) in the now extremely crowded smart phone space.”
Five years. That would be June 2006 then, or a year before the first iPhone model hit the shelves…..
Can’t believe someone actually considered this as a possibility
Apple seldom buys a company or its tech inorder to just shelve it and get it out of the way. To me, it would be a silly move to buy RiMM as most of their customers probably fall on the anti-Apple crowd and all this purchase would do is send those same people to MS and their phone attempts.
Its part of the “Apple is the new Microsoft” meme. While Apple is a large corporation and functions essentially like all large corporations, the binary thinking of the tech press and so called analysts demands that Apple behave *exactly* like other corporate entities.
“downward adjusted”
The word you are looking for is “lowered”.
Fuck, I hate these fucking people.
RIMM: Shot
Yup. Apple should go out in search of companies who build anachronistic technologies and buy them. RIM is just the beginning. They should find out who manufactures Cathode Ray Tubes and buy them. Next up, typewriter companies – is Remington still in business? Buy ’em. Buggy wheel, trebuchet and stone-ax manufacturers? Buy ’em all.
Don’t you guys know any words other then “beleaguered”? You use it at least once every two to three days. Check out thesaurus.com for help