Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha believes that despite BlackBerry 10, RIM might not be worth acquiring.
"Any deal for [the] company is highly complex in our view, requiring simultaneous management of a declining business, as well significant restructuring, and as such an acquirer maybe be best advised to wait for [the company] to shrink meaningfully before making any potential move," Garcha told AllThingsD. "A break up is possible… [But] we question the quality of the underlying patent portfolio and also believe that converting RIM’s existing network operations center for other OS platforms may require a high level of effort for minimal functionality improvement."
RIM is still a valuable company with a subscriber base boasting over 80 million users around the world. However, what Garcha is stressing above is the fact that interested parties won't just take control of the BlackBerry division, including its operating system and patents. Rather, they would also be taking control of RIM's network operations center (NOC), which is utilized to securely send emails, in addition to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server business.
Subsequently, buying RIM and all of its associated divisions would result in an acquisition that would lead to complex management of the various pieces of RIM's portfolio.
Despite optimism by RIM's current CEO regarding the firm's potential comeback in the competitive smartphone market, the jury is still out for BlackBerry 10, which is arguably the company's biggest lifeline to recover from its financial turmoil.
