“My article on Monday suggesting that social media giant Facebook or Sony would buy struggling phone manufacturer Research in Motion( was not well received by the company’s investors,” Richard Saintvilus writes for TheStreet. “However, I am beginning to wonder what serious alternatives these investors see that can salvage what little credibility the company has left.”
“On Monday, the stock closed below $10 — not a surprise as I predicted It would only a couple of weeks ago in an article titled ‘Short RIM Under $10.’ However, what was a surprise is that it had taken this long,” Saintvilus writes. “Having lost its double-digit support, investors are now scrambling for answers to the new most important question, can it hold $5? And will an acquisition occur before it is forced to find out?”
Saintvilus writes, “The fact of the matter is, I just don’t see a future for RIM where the scenario does not include an acquisition.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Edselphones.
RIM investors must be dizzy from circling the bowl.
Related articles:
Beleaguered RIM’s latest woes seen speeding loss of BlackBerry users – June 1, 2012
Research shows U.S. feds making tectonic shift from antiquated BlackBerry to Apple iPhone, iPad – May 3, 2012
Beleaguered RIM shares tank further as CEO hit with tepid response to Blackberry 10 – May 1, 2012
does every RIM article have to start with beleaguered? C’mon guys, be a little more creative?
Poor beleguered reader, you obviously weren’t around in the mid-90s.
Buying RIM for $5 is like buying a Zune for five bucks: It’s still a Zune.
Exactly. Not sure what is left of the company, except for a possible patent portfolio. Their business is completely shot to pieces.
Apple could buy BB simply for the payents, and to own all those servers in enterprise server rooms around the world. Toss the handset business away and offer these companies a free upgrade from the BB server, to a “play at home” version of iCloud.
RIM actually have a HUGE presence in developing countries. They offered free email without a data plan, which is a big deal in these places where data is expensive.
However, that’s slowly eroding as well. They had an opportunity to pay Google the low royalty of $1.37 / handset and move to Android but they doggedly kept using their own OS.
If they had moved, today’s scenario would be very different and you’d probably see a whole lot more productivity apps on the Android platform.
That mistake is what sunk RIM and allowed a Windows Phone to enter the market.
One year from now, I wouldn’t be surprised to see significant Windows Phone and Tablets edging some of the marketshare from iOS and Android in the Corporate world.
Apple is being a much better corporate citizen lately but there is still deeply entrenched support for Microsoft among developers who make solutions for business, even if the hardware is not quite as compelling.
Android is profitable for Samsung and no one else. RIM could have been another profitless Android also-ran. But so what?
Samsung is profitable only because it does not have to follow the normal civilized rule of competition. It is a mafia outfit that muscles itself through extortion and coercion.
Actually one more reason they should buy RIM at these prices: “recruiting”.
There are a lot of good people there. Very good people. They’re suffering under a poor strategy. If Apple bought RIM, they would have an extra campus, already full of very bright people itching to get started on something successful.
Throw in the patents and enterprise customers, and it’s a cheap win at $5 billion. Just as long as they don’t keep any products or processes.
I highly suspect those “good people” are fleeing the company as fast as they can print resumes.
——RM
Unfortunately that must be the case. The good ones might all be gone already. Yet another Canadian tragedy on the scale of Nortel.
There is value in RIMM and NOKIA.
They both have valuable patents. Nokia has, in addition, a great presence in the dumbphone business, especially in the third world. Nokia has a market cap of 10B and has NET cash of approx 6B. That would be about 5B to buy Nokia. I think MS is poised to take advantage of this oportunity if Apple does not.
NO BUY OUT LET RIM ROAST
So, at $5, RIM would be worth less than the Nortel patents sold for.
Nortel was worth less than the Patents they sold were worth, because there are costs associated with dismantling a business. RIM’s patents are likely worth more than the whole company is worth at this point, sadly.
Why are Apple fans always coming off like disciples? I use RIM products and they are just fine and north of 75 Million other users agree. This said I also use an iPhone 4s and a few Androids and they all have they pros and cons. RIM will sail through these harsh waters and will be fine by the Fall. Their new OS is very intuitive and their devices have always been relatively of good quality.
Thanks Pat. I needed a good laugh! Yo Da man!
Hee Hah Joe Bob!
BB is the dumbest smart phone I have every used. Totally and utterly worthless as far as usability by today’s standards. It seems when installing and deleting apps the phone needs to restart to finish the process. Really? What year is this?
Unfortunatly I am stuck with it as it is company issue. Having an iPhone I can see why bb is secure…. No one with an iPhone (or android) wants to use it.
RIM have had repeated opportunities to get with the future and have BORKED every time. I believe they could shrink down to a survivable size with their current tech. But I don’t see any innovation or even adequate catchup in their future. That’s very sad, but appears to be the state of the company. I certainly don’t see any revival by the fall. Sorry. One does not have to be a rabid Apple fanboi to be insightful about tech.
Microsoft. Then Ballmer can copy Apple even more by having vertical integration.
Plus, Microsoft is always late to the game, so why not be late by thinking Blackberry service is something worth money these days?
RIM is so far behind the only reason to buy them would be patents.
Rest of the company would be broken up and sold off.
They offer nothing that iOS, windows mobile or android did not already do.
Why by at $5? Give it another week or 2 and you could get it for $2.50 or a $1. The real question is, at what point can they still close the doors and shut it down? As they loose contracts day after day, their cost to stay open will just keep piling up on what they can’t afford now.
SIDAGTMBTTS.
Somebody should ask Michael Dell and see if we can get the “same answer” 🙂
Who in their right mind mind would want that bag of hurt?
Too much arrogance, followed by blindness, trends missed & dismissed, missed dates & targets, laughable feature planning (no email – really? Really!? Mr. “we invented full-time, always-on email”)
RIM has strange culture and self distruct political environment.
In RIM if a new hired person figure out major problem and introduce efficient approach, both manager and his buddy group member will proof their wrong approach works. just like someone point out driving a car is right way, pushing a car is wrong way, then both manager and his buddy group member will hate you, and proof that 3 person can also move the car by pushing it. cheating email will be sent to some vice president, saying like: see, the car moving, pushing a car is a natural part of the process, in order to deny new hired contribution of introducing skill of drive a car, they have to deny merit of driving a car.
It is very strange company culture and strange company political environment, it promote stealing and cheating skill. RIM’s management may be a typical instance in MBA course.
This culture deny or steal hardworking team members’ contribution/innovation, generate strange political environment, destroy RIM.