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Amazon looked into purchasing RIM earlier this year, but talks stalled

By on December 20, 2011 at 6:30pm in Mobile News

Whew, what a day! Only minutes after learning that WIND is in merger talks with Mobilicity, Reuters drops this bombshell.

According to two trusted sources inside a Wall Street investment banking firm, Amazon was in talks to acquire RIM earlier in the year. While they did not make a formal offer to the besieged Waterloo entity, as their fortunes worsened the prospects of a takeover got better. Amazon.com Inc. just released its Kindle Fire tablet based on the BlackBerry Playbook design, and was in talks last year to bring its extensive MP3 library to certain BlackBerry devices.

It turns out that the buyout was rebuffed by RIM’s entrenched management, who seem to be satisfied with the company’s internal assets such as BlackBerry Messenger, its extensive device offering and worldwide enterprise infrastructure. RIM’s Board of Directors sees any buyout talks as a distraction from what is likely to be a long and hard battle to rebuild the company, which has lost nearly 80% of its market share in 2011.

After RIM’s disappointing quarterly earnings last week, its shares have fallen to their lowest number since 2004 and are sitting at $13.27 on the Toronto Stock Exchange (up some $0.75 after hours, likely due to this news).

Apparently investment bankers sought Samsung and HTC as other potential buyers but the companies weren’t interested, citing existing relationships with Google and Microsoft. Some analysts have called for a sell-off of RIM’s existing patent portfolio, and have encouraged co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie to split the company into two halves, one focusing on consumer goods like its BlackBerry smartphone line and another catering more to B2B enterprise solutions.

What may up being RIM’s most challenging year yet will continue into 2012 as it gears up to release Version 2.0 for the Playbook and its first BlackBerry 10 device.

Source: Reuters

Related posts:

  1. Citigroup: Amazon Smartphone will be launched in 4Q12
  2. Amazon Kindle app now available for Windows Phone 7 devices
  3. Amazon announces Kindle Fire Android tablet for $199 (not yet available to Canadians)
  4. CNET: RIM in talks with record labels, “BBM Music” beta coming soon?

Discussion

20 comments for “Amazon looked into purchasing RIM earlier this year, but talks stalled”

  1. And then amazon made the fire which is very similar to the playbook and is doing quite well

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 9

    Posted by Sean | December 20, 2011, 6:34 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • The only thing that RIM has at this point is Promises and RUMORS!
      This is just another story about someone “Thinking” on buying RIM. Nobody will jump with those CEOs and while the stock is dropping so fast. Why buy it in Dec for $12 when you can buy RIM for $10 in January?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 2

      Posted by liquidcash | December 21, 2011, 8:08 am

    • Not Syrup fault; its just part of RIM’s PR team but if you can’t see that this story is vaporware, its because you have lots of shares of RIM:
      “Two trusted sources inside a Wall Street investment banking firm, Amazon was in talks to acquire RIM earlier in the year”

      “Two trusted sources”?-
      “Earlier in the year”- Maybe Q1 when the stock was about $70 but now Forgeddabuit it!

      PR in action people; just trying to stop the dropping of the price; think about it if they don’t stop the momentum it will be $6 in January.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

      Posted by liquidcash | December 21, 2011, 8:13 am

  2. “talks stalled” and “buyout was rebuffed” seem like completely different ideas don’t they?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 14 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Mike W | December 20, 2011, 6:36 pm
    Reply to this comment

  3. It looks like RIM must be too shitty to be purchased.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 17 Thumb down 20

    Posted by DoctorCell | December 20, 2011, 6:41 pm
    Reply to this comment

  4. Alex Perrier needs a life and stop spending 98% of his day on mobilesyrup.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 5

    Posted by stays legit | December 20, 2011, 7:01 pm
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  5. There is nothing wrong with RIM people. RIM has over millions, if not hundreds of millions in liquid cash. Rim does not need to be #1 in the market to make good phones, tablets. The phones are amazing, and the company has no debt. Now is the best time to buy their stock. Who cares if they are not #1, so long as they continue to make business oriented and very secure phones/tablets people will continue to buy! Dont listen to all the negative PR hype. Someone will be getting very rich buying all this rim stock dirt cheap in the upcomming months.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 15 Thumb down 23

    Posted by Jan | December 20, 2011, 7:03 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • You are confusing “millions of liquid cash” with “millions of blackberrys in stock”!

      The best example of their situation is with Koodo: They have the samsung Ace (Android Phone) for $150 with $75 in Gift cards ($75 net price) and they are flying off the shelves; They also have the Curve 9300 for $150 with $100 Gift Certificate ( $50 net price )

      Gingerbread vs BB6?? which one does people go for?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 1

      Posted by liquidcash | December 21, 2011, 8:05 am

  6. I think that should say they have lost 80% of their market capitalization, not market share.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 12 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Lincoln | December 20, 2011, 7:04 pm
    Reply to this comment

  7. Two things that RIM must do in order to survive in the next comming years:
    1) get rid of these 2 moron co-CEOs
    2) Android comparable

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 15 Thumb down 8

    Posted by Dave | December 20, 2011, 7:38 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • I do not understand why you guys want Android on RIM phones… Say the same to Apple & Nokia phones.

      RIM has a secure email that Apple nor Android will EVER come near too. RIM Just needs to make their OS a bit more better & all in order to stay ahead. 75 million costumers are with RIM. So i guess they can still survive without Android.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 12

      Posted by Dimitri K. | December 20, 2011, 7:50 pm

  8. Good. Amazon dodged a bullet (or a brick aka Playbook).

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 11

    Posted by kenypowa | December 20, 2011, 8:11 pm
    Reply to this comment

  9. Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 19

    Posted by Wong | December 20, 2011, 8:14 pm
    Reply to this comment

    • Wong: got a link?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 10 Thumb down 1

      Posted by Mike W | December 20, 2011, 8:25 pm

    • I knowwww somebody who eats a lot of ppls B.S……their servers werent hacked you fool. Do some reading instead of just eating s**t and becoming full of it.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 0

      Posted by iEtthy | December 21, 2011, 8:03 am

  10. Dimitri: I’m pretty sure the desire for android on BB is because BBs aren’t fun. I love the OS (yes over android) but the games (maybe the whole app ecosystem) are lacking last time I was a BB user.

    Security concerns are relevant though.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Mike W | December 20, 2011, 8:30 pm
    Reply to this comment

  11. F rim. Sent from my gnexus

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 6

    Posted by jimmy | December 20, 2011, 11:28 pm
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  12. RIM email is in no way secure. The only thing that’s encrypted at all is bbm and even that gets unencrypted on RIMs servers, read and stored by various “interests” then re-encrypted for its destination.

    You get better security using HTTPS and actual security using PGP it GPG.

    RIM’s reputation for security is all marketing.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 7

    Posted by jeremy | December 21, 2011, 9:19 am
    Reply to this comment

    • Got a link to back that up? I can give you hunderds on links where even Apple fan boys admit that RIM has the best & secure email client.

      You guys are all talk but at least bring some links in your comments to back you up.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 1

      Posted by Dimitri k | December 21, 2011, 10:12 am

    • The Canadian and United States governments disagree with you.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 0

      Posted by Mike W | December 21, 2011, 10:15 am

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