News: Research in Motion - the saga continues

The latest news revolving around Research in Motion’s (RIM) fortunes centres around a rumour that Samsung was considering acquiring the Canadian smartphone and tablet manufacturer.

Despite the fact that Samsung has pointedly denied that it was seeking to acquire RIM, the company’s shares rose 11% just on the rumour alone.

It is no secret that RIM had a particularly bad year in 2011, which entailed the now infamous BlackBerry Blackout, legal woes over its BBX naming rights, and a delayed PlayBook OS 2.0 launch.

RIM’s troubles seem to have followed them into 2012, as the year began with stirrings of a potential firesale for its under-performing PlayBook and talk that RIM’s co-chief executive officers, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, may be stripped of their shared role of chairman of the board.

Warning signs

This latter piece of news prompted RIM’s share to rise 7%, as investors found hope that the BlackBerry manufacturer was finally changing.

Both events in which the company’s shares rose on news of significant developments are, to our mind, clear indications that investors are eager to see a change in how RIM conducts business.

They are not the only ones – a now famous open letter is doing the rounds on the internet in which a purportedly high-level RIM employee practically begs the company’s management to change its ways.

Are the sharks circling?

This is not the first time though that rumours of an imminent bid for RIM have surfaced. Late last year, there was talk of Vodafone, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nokia expressing interest in purchasing the company.

Should RIM choose to sell though, finding an actual buyer may be the least of their concerns. According to Boy Genius, the company had a selling price in mind that exceeded $10 billion for a full sale, possibly as high as $15 billion, or a share price ranging from $22.90 to $28.60 per share.

The site noted though that the company’s market capitalisation is currently in the region of $8.5 billion. The real bitter pill in the Boy Genius report is the assertion that “several analysts think that even $8.5 billion is more than an interested party would consider bidding at the moment.”

To the point

We can only conclude at this point that RIM needs to do something drastic to turn its fortunes around, particularly in the US, before it moves from being a major technology player to an unfortunate also-ran.

Research in Motion - the saga continues

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