"Research In Motion Ltd. rose to a record on speculation the maker of the BlackBerry e-mail device may be bought by Microsoft Corp." - Bloomberg

Bloomberg.com: Canada

Nooooo!!!! Let's hope it's just a rumor.

When this was brought up previously, someone pointed out the difficulties with this, due to the fact that Research in Motion is a Canadian company.

Right now RIM has a market cap of $48bn. Assuming a mild (low) 20% premium, RIM would cost around $60bn. Even Microsoft would notice that amount.

Actually, it's not true.

I'M buying RIM.

Guess how much I'm going to pay...

It's purely insider economist speculation.

NJ, apparently the rumor is that MS is considering acquiring a portion of the company. I'd guess they'd want to snap up the push technology and maybe the core security.

They have the ability to do so. Between cash on hand and stock they could handle this and other acquisitions. This would be bad news for the BB fans but good news for MS as they would add some good patents and technologies to se in Windows Mobile. Interesting Rumor, want to see some basis for it but interesting nonetheless.

This just sounds ridiculous. First both co-founders would have to be willing to sell their stake to own the majority of VOTING shares in order to purchase the company. monopoly concerns aside; I'm sure it would go through, it just doesn't sound feasible.

If M$ was to purchase NTP then that would be more likely a better endeavor.

I would officially perish from the face of the earth. I hope it is just a nonsense rumor.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

God help us all...this had better turn out to be as credible as last years Palm merger rumour...

Jagga not sure what you mean about monopoly concerns. They would be getting more into the pda market which neither of them have a monopoly on.

I also think its garbage but its possible. I would think Nokia would want in on RIM if their was a possibility of being acquired.

If M$ buys RIM and replaces the BB OS with their abortion of an OS, Win Mobile, then its good bye Blackberry. It would fit perfectly with M$ strategy for eliminating the competition. Buy it, kill it, then everyone has to use its crap. RIM wouldn't be the first company to be gobbled up by the evil empire, just to get them out of the way.

Count me among those who believe that this rumor is nonsense and/or unfeasible. However, even if some type of buyout or investment in RIM by MS were to come to pass, any fears of RIM's OS being replaced by Win Mobile are entirely unfounded. Any potential acquirer (MS included) would be looking at the RIM OS as a valuable asset to utilize, not something to be eliminated. Again, I doubt there's much to this particular rumor, but as the wireless market continues to evolve and new players emerge, the only certainty is that takeover rumors will be constant.

Merely speculations....no merit given from me.

Dont believe it just yet either. Can we say MONOPOLY.

Monopoly of what?

I do not see anywhere how this would be considered a monopoly. RIM is a hardware software maker with a small marketshare in worldwide sales numbers. MS does not make any phones and is a large player in mobile OS but not a monopoly. I like how every time a MS buy rumor comes up its "oh thats a monopoly".

pwodak, think about it, MS has alot more experience in their own OS than the BB OS. They would take what they wanted from the OS and incorporate it into the WM. and of course make sure they had strict control over the RIM patents.
This of course makes it ironic to me that the OP is "theborg", RIM would be forced to assimilate or else...

But I too think this is false as I dont see MS or RIM as benefiting enough from this.

Microsoft wasnt exactly a monoply before either, well it depends on who you ask. But windows mobile and RIM are the major OS for business level phones do you not disagree? and if they were under one roof this would teader on the lines of monoply.

I dont give much thought to this rumor. Microsoft genuinely thinks the Windows Mobile/exchange combination is better then the Blackberry/BES service.

From their perspective they would be spending a significant amount of money to no useful end.

I guess you've never seen M$ in action. In their mind Win Mobile is superior to anything on the market and its their mission to bring their masterpiece to the people, whether they want it or not.
Any takeover would simply be to eliminate the competition. And once it is eliminated, M$ couldn't care less if customers thought BB OS was better or not. Business would turn toward Win Mobile as there would be no other choice. M$ would entrench themselves through proprietary lock ins, just like on the desktop and soon they would be the defacto mobile OS, with the iphone and linux just a curiosity, not ment for business. Yes this is totally a possibility and I wouldn't put it past those scumbags at Redmond to attempt to conquer yet another market, not be quality or innovation, but good old dirty tricks. They have done it before, they WILL do it again.

no i do not see any monopoly at all. business level phones? what is that 5% of the worldwide sales? not really going to qualify as a monopoly in my mind.
They would take what they like of the BB OS and incorporate it into WM.

Argon, not sure i agree that mobile linux, osx, and symbian should be called a curiosity, many business people use those OSs everyday. And I think in here we do not give Nokia enough credit, they are major players outside the US.
Its called free market, corp. will always try to maximize profits, not always to the benefit of the consumer.

This is really a waste of a thread though because this sounds like an unfounded rumor.

hasn't this rumor for the past couple years?

Not a monoply in the industry, however in this section. No big deal i still think its not going to happen.

Un-frikin'-believable!

BTW - MSFT can very easily go ahead and pay over a 20% premium for RIMM, given its super large current cash & cash equivalent reserves at hand, not to mention a larger premium that they can pay if the deal were to be financed via a good chunk of debt (yes, I know about the lending concerns given the sub prime bubble collapse, but we're talking about MSFT here which is AA rated I believe)

Not sure whether they will incorporate RIMMs tech into windoze mobile or whether they will just scuttle ship (i.e. RIMM), just to "kill" their most feared push email competition

Either ways, this is a concern for the BB community if the rumor ever became truth - can't imagine living in a MSFT led, RIM world or worse - windozed blackberries...

Pretty darn diabolical & devious if you come to think about it....

All they want out of RIM is it out of the game and its patents, so no one else can use them. As far as M$ goes, they think Win Mobile is the greatest anyway and would have no use to incorporate BB OS into Win Mobile.

Yup and many here have outright dismissed the rumor. M$ is dangerous and all the "it will never happen" folks should check the history of this predatory company to see how many others had said the same thing.

This is how M$ has always run its business. Didn't you know that?

I can not imagine this ever happening! I can see M$ going into some sort of partnership with RIM, take what they want and giving RIM a bad deal. M$ did something like that to Apple back in the 90's. As I recall. The deal fell through once M$ got what they wanted.

Either way, this is certainly the ultimate nightmare for RIM and it's users.

I would seriously get a motorola razr if something like this ever came to pass.

Then I would slice my wrists and make snow angels. Please let this just be a rumor >.>

I could really see Microsoft going in and buying into RIM stock so to get their hands on (steal) the technology. That's been Microsoft's trademark from the get-go anyways. I just hope that this is totally hearsay and RIM not go into any agreements with Microsoft.

Here is an article I found that also speculates on the buy-out and also why it will probably not happen.

Microsoft purchase of RIM nice to consider, but unlikely

Hello iphone!

This statement in the article says it all:

Buying RIM would counter its current weakness in developing hardware for its mobile OS, Warren said.

M$ would have no intention of using the BB OS for anything. They would slap their own crap OS on RIM hardware and expect everyone to roll their eyes over the great masterpiece they had created.

My favourite line was:

RIM would gain Microsoft's brand power

ROFL, as if that is going to help them!

Wirelessly posted (8830: BlackBerry8830/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Ms is moving to cell phones and remote data if even they do buy a part of rim bb' will still not run a win mobile os. Don't see what the big deal rim even after purchase would still do what they do. Make a corprate use product. Ms might port out a more userfrindy version but it still be rim doing it.

It's more alarming than that though wabbit.

As a Domino BES admin, I have always appreciated RIM's neutrality across messaging systems. No way would MS-RIM develop BES for Domino/GWise the same as for Exchange, they would just use it as another way to try and force organisations to migrate to Exchange.

Ah yes, someone else who can see!

mmnmnmnmn ... the Kool-aid is strong with Microsoft.

As an organization, we are constantly running into Microsoft purchasing technology companies to get into the Enterprise space. On every occasion, they have used that acquisition to further penetrate our organization and ultimately develop their products to more effectively compliment their sister products. If you use anything other that Microsoft products, you WILL lost functionality if this purchase were to happen.

i really really really really hope that this isn't true. i absolutely LOATHE ms, and do not use any of their products and don't buy them, but i LOVE my pearl.

I will lead a crusade that shall smite M$ from the face of the planet should this ever come to pass.

I'll join your crusade!