Following reports on Tuesday and Wednesday that Research in Motion (RIMM) has been a take-out target of several companies, including Amazon.com (AMZN), the Globe & Mail’s Iain Marlow and Boyd Erman this morning write that the reason no deal has happened is because Microsoft (MSFT) was scared away by the “rapid deterioration” of the BlackBerry business, citing a single anonymous source.
Marlow and Erman say hedge funds walked away for the same reason.
In any event, the authors note investors believe RIM management, and its board, are resistant to any takeover efforts:
I think in terms of separating the chairman and CEO roles, it�s possible [the board] might have some success there, but I don�t think they�ll have any success in terms of replacing Mike and Jim,� said one fund manager, who has sold down his firm�s large position in RIM but remains a shareholder. �I think RIM wants to see how the new QNX smartphones are received in the market before they would contemplate selling out.
RIM shares today are down 25 cents, or 2%, at $13.53.
No comments:
Post a Comment