The Canadian government won’t step in to block a sale of RIM, if it comes, despite its significance not only to research and development in the area of networking, consumer electronics and the enterprise, but also to the city of Waterloo and its many thousands of resident employees.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said that the company “will be the masters of their own destiny,” but that he and his government would prefer them to stay Canadian, and successful. Right now, analysts say, RIM is ripe for a takeover, with a dwindling market share in key markets like North America, and a product line up that does not compete with its rivals in Apple and Google.
Thorsten Heins, RIM’s new CEO, said during Friday’s quarter-end conference call, that significant change is going to be necessary for the future of the company. They will focus less (but not completely abandon) the consumer market and instead redouble their intentions for the enterprise, beefing up support for rival platforms like iOS and Android with its Mobile Fusion product which is to replace the aging BlackBerry Enterprise Service.
Companies that are said to be appropriate buyers for RIM would be Hewlett Packard, Dell, Amazon, Microsoft or Nokia, and there were rumours last year of Samsung being in the market as well. Whether any of these companies, or a group of independent buyers, would be interested in RIM, is another story; all of these companies have baggage of their own, and it’s unclear where RIM would fit in to the mix. IBM would be a far more appropriate suitor, but they don’t seem to be interested.
Since Friday the stock price has risen nearly 10% to $15, and with news of a potential buyout, we could see a mini resurgence of the stock this week.
Source: CBC News
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