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.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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Shin-san I would be more surprised if someone recommended buying them. I think they did last yearReply -
Zetto 80 million users and this so called analyst thinks it's not worth anything? A biased idiot more like.Reply
Giving these people a voice does a disservice to society at large.
How many Apple stocks are in his portfolio is a better question.
Just because the valley girls have moved on to iwhatever doesn't mean industry is going to move too, the Blackberry base is still solid due to unmatched security, and will stay that way for quite some time, stock speculators abandon ship overnite so can't be trusted in anything they say. -
-Fran- Unless they don't own any patents in the US for their most great products, it could be the case.Reply
Still RIM has a long experience with secure mobile systems, so that's a good thing to have in your assets. So, the thing is not if RIM is worthy or not for another company to buy. It's about the price and this analyst is playing for someone to spread the word to it's cheaper to buy. Been there, done that.
Wonder how their employees line up is. Do they still have the good old employees that gave birth to the first BB's?
Cheers! -
mrmez Really? Do you think so?Reply
Wow. I wanna be an analyst when i grow up.
State the obvious and get paid for it.
Ask any 12 year old "what phone do you want?" RIM is NOT the answer. Ever.
Why would you even invest in a company thats been buggering things up for the last 5 years and has no strategy to dig itself out?
Still, i agree that we need people to tell us what we already know. -
hero1 We Canucks say big f u to these analysts. RIM will come back strong. Need to make durable quality phones: one complete touch screen with 4.5" high res screen, normal bold with touch screen and a slide. And that's it. Go get them and if I have not switched to WP8 I'll def get their full touch screen phone.Reply -
tobalaz Millions of consumers that have already switched to Android and iOS could have told you RIM wasn't worth buying.... ZING!Reply -
Darkk Why would any of this matter since RIM will be out of business sometime early next year since they already shot themselves in the foot with late and outdated products. It would make sense now for RIM to get out of hardware business and just license the technology to other companies who can support it better. RIM had it's day 10 years ago when there wasn't anything close to the Blackberry. Now smartphones pretty much kicked it to the curb. Sorry RIM...your days are numbered as a hardware company.Reply
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iamtheking123 otacon72RIM devices will always have something the others will never have...security. Every week there's another security issue with Android coming out and iOS? yeah...ok..lol I need a device that makes good phone calls..shocking I know...is unmatched in email handling and is great for texting. I don't have time to play Angry Birds on my phone...I work for a living.My company uses Good for Enterprise. Encrypted partition on Android phones for securely sending/receiving emails. Next argument please...Reply