Research In Motion posts loss, considers selling itself
31 Mar 2012
The maker of BlackBerry smartphones, Research In Motion (RIM), is considering pulling out from the consumer market and may even sell itself after posting its first quarterly loss since the fourth quarter of 2005.
RIM posted revenues of $4.2 billion and loss of $125 billion. The company said that it shipped 11.1 million BlackBerry phones in the quarter and more than 500,000 PlayBook tablets.
While posting a $125 million loss, RIM said that it needed to consider strategic alternatives, including joint ventures or partnerships.
A blog post on The Wall Street Journal penned down a mile-long list of potential suitors, which included Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Dell, Samsung, HP, HTC, Amazon and several others.
The blog post will not do any good for RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins, whose elevation to the post in January did not evoke a thumbs up from analysts.
A takeover of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company would come cheap as RIM's current market value is a mere $7.3 billion, compared to $29.4 billion a year ago and a fraction of over $70 billion in 2008.
