"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.