Monday, October 13, 2008

RIM Vulnerable to Takeover?

This possibility was first broached by Mark McQueen of Wellington Financial in Toronto.  He notes that "Without a doubt, RIM is and will continue to be a profitable company with plenty of cash, no debt and a bunch of new products (Bold, Storm and Pearl Flip) are rolling out at this very moment around the world. But, that sadly doesn’t mean that it will be able to resist an oppotunistic takeover offer from the likes of Microsoft, et al."

RIM's market cap has shrunk from US$83 billion in June 2008 to US$31 billion today.

According to Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek, “RIM is a massive strategic fit” for Microsoft. “I’m fairly certain they have a standing offer to buy them at $50 (a share).”
I don't buy it. Microsoft has dropped as well, and most tech companies are now sporting much more healthy P/E ratios.

Also, a lot of RIMM shares are owned by management and friendly funds. And the upside of BlackBerry is better than the upside of MS.

I have no doubt that RIM, Apple and Google will continue to be the tech darlings of NASDAQ.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't buy it either. The main obstacle for a prospective acquirer would be access to capital to fund such a massive takeover. Seeing as the credit markets are frozen, no CEO would be bold enough to do a cash deal during such a profoundly uncertain market conditions.

Alastair Sweeny said...

And look at all the trouble Microsoft got in taking a run at Yahoo.

 

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