During RIM’s rapid stock price decent one of their shareholders, Vic Alboini, Chairman and CEO of Jaguar, said RIM should split the business into 3 divisions: network, device and patent. This was back in October of last year and since this date the company has moved forward in many ways, namely replacing co-CEO’s and Co-Chairmen Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis with new CEO Thorsten Heins, plus hiring JP Morgan and RBC Capital to help with a “strategic review” of their company.
Today a new report in the Sunday Times reveals that RIM is considering splitting their business up, similar to what Alboini suggested a few months ago. Apparently the rumour is to have two companies: handset division and messaging network division. It’s also possible that RIM would sell the handset business all together and, according to the Times, “potential buyers” are Facebook and Amazon. Another option that is reportedly in the works, again according to unknown sources, is to keep the company operating as is, but get a major investment from a bigger tech company, such as Microsoft – which was previously a rumour.
We’ll most likely hear what RIM is planning to do at their upcoming Annual Meeting of Shareholders on July 10th. It should also be noted that when Thorsten Heins took on the job of CEO he stated the following:
“I will not in anyway split this up or separate this into different businesses. Now on the licensing piece. I’m absolutely confident that BlackBerry 10 will prove itself as a platform. If there is requests coming towards Research In Motion to talk about licensing that platform to other companies I will entertain those discussions, I will listen, I will access the business opportunity for RIM and if it makes sense strategically and tactically to go down that path, and then I will make the decision together with the board. It’s not my focus one. My focus one is to strengthen RIM’s business based on that integrated approach.”
Source: Sunday Times
Via: The Verge & Reuters
