RIM said hiring banks for 'strategic options'
updated 04:35 pm EDT, Mon April 16, 2012
RIM hints at possible large scale deals
A trio of sources leaked Monday that RIM has been looking at hiring banks to advise it on "strategic options." The Bloomberg tips had the BlackBerry designer looking for one Canadian and one international bank. The negotiation was explained more as evaluative than a definitive direction.
RIM hadn't commented on the story.
The company's CEO Thorsten Heins had shown a willingness to explore virtually every option possible for the company. While he wasn't inclined to sell RIM, he wasn't ruling out that or options such as licensing BlackBerry 10. RIM's results for its recently ended quarter were difficult enough that it stopped giving unit guidance as it couldn't predict how phone shipments would go during the transition to BlackBerry 10.
Rumors have periodically linked Samsung to RIM for a possible acquisition, but the company has at least publicly denied any talks. Many consider RIM a difficult sell as it has a proprietary OS that would likely be tossed aside in favor of Android, Windows Phone, or something else. A large existing corporate base would force any buyer to sustain the old OS for months, if not years, until they were ready to transition over.
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