RIM In Play?
Some analyst at Goldman Sachs is driving up RIM’s stock by suggesting that Nokia or Motorola might buy the company. It’s not clear if there’s any basis for this announcement, other than the idea that RIM might want to team up with a bigger player. Of course, there are plenty of reasons why this deal would make no sense at all. It’s been a few years since we first started wondering why RIM didn’t admit the inevitable and focus on the software side of its business instead of the hardware side. They have continued to license their software to a variety of companies, including Nokia, so it’s not clear what benefit Nokia would get from buying the company outright. Nokia certainly doesn’t need RIM’s hardware operations. And, in buying RIM, the market for RIM’s software would shrink, as many Nokia or Motorola competitors wouldn’t want to partner with a hardware competitor, and would go running to other software providers such as Good. In fact, about the only one who benefits from RIM getting bought out would be a company like Good.
