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Rumor: Research In Motion pushing for sale to Samsung
Update: Samsung has gone on record to say they have not considered acquiring RIM and are not interested in buying the BlackBerry maker.
Research in Motion has reportedly been looking at the possibility of licensing their software to companies such Samsung and HTC. None of the aforementioned firms is officially commenting on the rumors, of course, but according to trusted sources cited by Boy Genius Report, RIM is most likely leaning toward a partial or even full sale of the company, with co-CEO Jim Balsillie "going hard after Samsung" as a possible suitor.
It's not clear if the South Korean electronics giant would even be interested in such a deal, but if an acquisition goes through, RIM's 75 million BlackBerry users would vault Samsung way past Nokia to become the top mobile phone manufacturer in the world. That's a big if, however. According to the report, RIM is still actively meeting with anyone that could be interested in a buyout but everyone has balked at the $12-$15 billion asking price.
Back in December, it was reported that the Canadian firm had turned down takeover overtures from Amazon.com and other potential buyers -- which could have included Microsoft and Nokia -- because its current situation would significantly impact suitor's offers. Back then the company supposedly said an outright sale or joint venture was not on the cards, only licensing deals or other types of commercial partnerships.
RIM's market value has dropped significantly in the last 12 months to about $7 billion following a series of disappointing quarterly reports, delayed phone launches, weak PlayBook tablet sales and a major fault in October that caused millions of BlackBerry users to lose service -- among other things.
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User Comments: 12
Got something to say? Post a comment-
Darth Shiv said:
They are on a downward spiral for a reason. The opposition is better. Why would Samsung want to buy out RIM? Apart from maybe hardware manufacturing capabilities... their software is worthless.
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3 letters:
BBM
If Samsung had BBM in their phones, game over everyone else.
That's the main reason to get one and why Blackberry phones are so popular here in Canada. If they licensed that out to or was bought by Samsung, that would just destroy everyone else. Plus, get a hefty patent increase vs apple's douchebaggery
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I disagree, BBM isn't worth a mention since instant messengers are becoming more popular, multi-platform WhatsApp or Apples iMessage are proof other providers can do instant messaging and do it just as well if not better. If I was samsung I wouldn't bother at all, BBM isn't worth $12 billion, hell Samsung could make their own instant messenger with that money and probably make it better...
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RIM should just sell for a cheap price now before BlackBerry devices achieve lower market share than they already do now. It was a good run, even though I never, or would never, own a BlackBerry device.
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blackberry has already made it's image in the world with bbm -- even though apple has created the imessanger people it's hasn't caught up with usage in terms of bbm. bbm is more widely known than imessenger.
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princeton said:
Nope.avi.
[link]
A new report from Reuters says that Samsung is not interested in purchasing RIM. Samsung spokesman James Chung said “We haven't considered acquiring the firm and are not interested in (buying RIM)”. RIM's stock increased just over 8% on the news today, but unfortunately after hours trading is down over 3%.
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iMessage is almost like BBM. Remember, BBM uses a seperate "Blackberry pin" to give to contacts. Similar to a throwaway number rather than giving your actual phone number. And it's encrypted, unlike WhatsApp. BBM is huge overseas. Think terrorists etc.
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Staff
Rumors are rumors, but I agree with everyone else... Samsung buying RIM would be a complete waste only comparable to HP's Palm takeover, and we know how that ended.
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Samsung released a statement, they have no interest in buying them out...this caused a stock drop apparently also of RIM.
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I think atm probably Google may be the best proposition for RIM (although I don't think Google would want to buy RIM as well), as Google need to get their hands on more patents, whereas, for the rest there is not much value in buying RIM.
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Blackberry is still popular among corporate users and outside of Western Europe and North America. The plebs on the street aren't using it, doesn't mean it's inferior.
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Darth Shiv said:Guest said:
Blackberry is still popular among corporate users and outside of Western Europe and North America. The plebs on the street aren't using it, doesn't mean it's inferior.
Only a matter of time now til it's dead. Our company is transitioning off Nokia and Blackberry for corporate use as Android now has the majority of the required app support. E.g. SalesForce and so on.
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