Find: RIM’s Month in Three Letters: WTF?

The vultures begin circling rim. 

RIM’s Month in Three Letters: WTF?

RIM's PlayBook can't even stand to look at you.


Blackberry’s once-mighty manufacturer is in trouble. The company laid off workers in July. Carriers don’t want to support the 4G Playbook tablet. The company’s messaging service has even been scapegoated for riots in London and elsewhere in Britain. Its new suite of smartphones may be the best Blackberrys ever made, but they probably won’t be enough to solve the company’s deeper problems.


Yet, after Google’s hefty purchase offer for Motorola Mobility Holdings, RIM’s stock is rallying for the first time in almost a year.


Analysts say buyers feel sanguine about RIM largely because of one of four scenarios:



  1. One of the other smartphone players will buy RIM like Google bought Motorola. Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek thinks Apple, Samsung or Microsoft are candidates to buy RIM for its patent portfolio, not its handsets.

  2. RIM will spin off its IP holdings or its logistics and solutions division into a separate company. Northern Securities’ Sameet Kanade has suggested this option, saying it will let “shareholders decide where they want to participate. Do they want to participate in RIM’s IP (intellectual property) growth or do they want to participate in RIM’s operating growth?”

  3. Google’s purchase of Motorola will throw the Android ecosystem into chaos. That will give RIM time to catch up, regroup and pick up the pieces. Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu writes:

    We believe RIM could benefit from potential disruption in the Android ecosystem as Google integrates its acquisition of Motorola Mobility and there could be a potential eruption of a civil war. In addition, from our conversations with carriers, they would love to see a stronger No. 3 supplier in mobile phones. And the reason is that many of them are growing concerned with the growing dominance of Google and Apple. We believe Windows Phone will benefit as well but RIM is arguably in a stronger position given its independence and incumbent position as the No. 3 player.



  4. RIM will enter into a strategic p...

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