WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.
Amazon, Nokia and Microsoft are among the companies thought to have sounded out RIM over the possibility of a takeover of the struggling BlackBerry-maker, according to media reports this week.
Sources at Reuters claim that Amazon hired an investment bank earlier this year to review a potential merger with RIM, but pulled short of making a formal offer. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal claims that Nokia and Microsoft also held discussions with RIM over a joint bid.
While deals on this scale would have been inconceivable a year ago, RIM has had a disastrous year that has led to its share price hitting an eight-year low this week. As a result, co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis now find themselves under pressure from shareholders to execute a recovery plan, which could mean breaking the company up or being acquired by a rival.
However, the firm is thought to be working on several smaller solutions that it hopes will tide the company over until its new (delayed) BlackBerry OS launches late next year.
According to sources at the Wall Street Journal, RIM has approached other smartphone makers, including Samsung and HTC, about licensing RIM's new BlackBerry 10 OS, effectively an attempt to mimic the model successfully deployed by Google with Android.
Balsillie also said on the firm's earnings call last week that the company was evaluating ways to "leverage" the company's network infrastructure – a hint that it could rent out capacity on its global network to other operators, tapping up another revenue source.
"Selling the company or an economic joint venture is probably not in the cards right now," a source told Reuters. "Until you stabilise the platform, people are going to be very nervous about spending US$10 billion or more."
Some potential corporate and private equity suitors are holding out for RIM's valuation to fall further, people familiar with the matter said.
RIM's stock surged as much as 10.2 percent in German trading this morning off the back of the acquisition rumours. Before the reports, shares had tumbled to their lowest level in almost eight years.
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