“Research in Motion’s shares rose 10 per cent on the Nasdaq on Wednesday amid a fresh round of reports that potential acquirers, including Amazon, had expressed interest in buying the struggling Canadian maker of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablet computers,” Paul Taylor reports for The Financial Times. “Although the talks took place earlier this year and were rebuffed by RIM, news of the takeover interest nevertheless saw the shares gain $1.25 to $13.77. RIM’s senior management and board appear to have ruled out a sale, at least for the moment.”
Taylor reports, “HTC and Samsung, which both make smartphones running Google’s rival Android operating system, have also been mentioned as potential bidders, although, as with Amazon, their primary interest could be RIM’s extensive patent portfolio, which they could use to defend patent suits from rivals. Analysts note that Google’s pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility was driven, in large part, by Google’s need to strengthen the intellectual property supporting Android in the face of an escalating patent war with Apple and others.”
“RIM’s co-chief executives, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who together hold about 11 per cent of RIM’s equity, have made clear they plan to lead the turnround effort and believe RIM can survive as an independent company,” Taylor reports. “Their willingness to consider an offer is critical, and they have not shown evidence of that to date, said Rod Hall, a JPMorgan analyst.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Lazaridis and Balsillie are two fools inside a one-trick pony suit. Whatever they say is meaningless babble. And, describing RIM as “maker of PlayBook tablet computers” is just plain cruel; Tayler’s kick in the face to RIM as it lies sprawled in the gutter. It’s like describing the now-defunct Palm Inc. as the “maker of the Foleo.”
Amazon would be the perfect place for the RIM dinosaur to curl up and die.