[jamezalexander]

Let’s make some sense of RIM offloading NewBay, a company they purchased for roughly 100$ Million, to Synchronoss Technologies for 55.5$ million. RIM bought into the Irish cloud service company and then immediately offloaded it. Integration usually takes about a year. But integration is not what happened between these companies. Old management jumped into the purchase of NewBay without doing their due diligence. They dropped 100 million dollars to get in bed with patents held by NewBay in the domain of content delivery across multiple devices. What RIM hasn't told us, is that in August of 2011 (prior to the purchase of Newbay) Synchronoss Technology took civil action against NewBay for multiple instances of patent infringement. Selling NewBay so cheap is RIMs way of avoiding costly litigation while they make the smooth transition to BlackBerry 10.In other words the purchase of NewBay was ultimately a costly mistake. RIM has extracted key pieces of IP and software to bolster their BlackBerry Cloud, but the offload of NewBay comes down to its small part in the grand scheme of cloud storage. RIM has further partnered with BOX to offer consumer side cloud services. In the end they paid 45 million dollars for what they wanted from NewBay and have sold off the rest to avoid patent litigation because some aspects of NewBays services have patents held by its new owners. CEO Thorsten Heins foresaw the need of this sell, which is why he hired Zipperstein in July as Chief Legal Officer and also why RIM went into months of strategic review, this sell off is the best outcome of that review. Both companies are happy with the transaction.

Source: http://nerdberry.net/2012/12/27/rim-...te/#more-45751

[owadkelly]

Thanks JamezAlexander, great piece and opens my eyes and answers many questions

[BergerKing]

If you only needed part, best that you get rid of that not needed.

[travaz]

I couldn't agree more with your assesment. The parts that they kept will likely cover the loss in the long run and the tax write off in the short run wont hurt. A really good shrewed business move. There may be others to come
.

[DocDRM]

Good scoop, J. Not a big follower of corporate details but even a country boy from Texas could tell there was more to this story than met the eyes.

[phylez]

Thanks JamezAlexander, great piece and opens my eyes and answers many questions

[walt63]

Yeah. I kinda called it on another thread. I had a feeling that this was all about licenses and patents.

[G-bone]

NOW it makes complete sense!
Just one more reason why Thor is our Mighty Leader!
(gonna Penetrate a lot more than Market )
Thanks, JamezAlexander - good detective work!

[Shanerredflag]

Great narrative...enjoyed very much.

[Dapper37]

Thanks for attempting to explane whats happened with Newbay, I'm still a litttle confused. You say it was a costly mistake on the part of old managment. At the same time a saying that RIM and Thor got out of the deal with what they wanted?
Whats that, a patent aggrement with newbays new owners or the ip and software they originaly wanted. Something else?
If there is ether of the above going on (I suspect there has to be) why do you call it a costly mistake instead of a shrewed business move?
Do we have any data to back all this up?

[Rello]

Thanks OP. That was great to know.

Hopefully it is true that RIM took what they needed. I have been eagerly waiting to see what cloud services RIM would provide ever since they purchased Newbay. In my opinion, this is one feature that i would be really disappointed to not have upon BB10's release

[badiyee]

I am peeved that RIM deicded to kowtow to Nokia and pay a hefty sum of 65Million, then sell NewBay for 55Million.

RIM needs to duke it out, and smash Nokia right in the gonuts! Seriously! Now all the Nokia fanboys are singing praises like . /facepalm

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

[leafs123]

I am peeved that RIM deicded to kowtow to Nokia and pay a hefty sum of 65Million, then sell NewBay for 55Million.

RIM needs to duke it out, and smash Nokia right in the gonuts! Seriously! Now all the Nokia fanboys are singing praises like . /facepalm

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

It's not your money, therefore I do not see why you are so upset.

[lnichols]

Hopefully this is the last of the Mike and Jim mistakes that RIM has to deal with. RIM should already have a decent "cloud" infrastructure with the NOCs used for BIS. Even better is that it should be a very secure cloud. RIM should build on what they have.

[jamezalexander]

Thanks for attempting to explane whats happened with Newbay, I'm still a litttle confused. You say it was a costly mistake on the part of old managment. At the same time a saying that RIM and Thor got out of the deal with what they wanted?
Whats that, a patent aggrement with newbays new owners or the ip and software they originaly wanted. Something else?
If there is ether of the above going on (I suspect there has to be) why do you call it a costly mistake instead of a shrewed business move?
Do we have any data to back all this up?

Old management f'ed up
Thor made the best of the bad acquisiton by extracting the value he could and getting rid of it

[RECOOL]

Yeah figured as much there was something dodgy about the sale like I said in the other newbay thread.RIM are chess players they barely get aquisitions wrong.No doubt they took newbays cloud tech than sold of the other parts they didnt need.I didnt know there was patent dispute but I knew RIM sold them off for a reason.

I would'nt be surprised that the newbay tech helped create mobile fusion.RIM have done well to start up its its cloud inviroment we'll see some of it in BB10 and the qnx cars.It will be in testing period for a while but I think the bigger plan will be to offer blackeberry solution across all board offer cloud service to goverment and coporations toss all secured bb10 phones.RIM play chess well.New management are serious.

[RECOOL]

I am peeved that RIM deicded to kowtow to Nokia and pay a hefty sum of 65Million, then sell NewBay for 55Million.

RIM needs to duke it out, and smash Nokia right in the gonuts! Seriously! Now all the Nokia fanboys are singing praises like . /facepalm

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

Lol getting into deep.But no one escape patents from Nokia,Nokia are Zeus with phone patents for real.Some wars you got to lose to win the battle later.

[azzurri_94]

Lol getting into deep.But no one escape patents from Nokia,Nokia are Zeus with phone patents for real.Some wars you got to lose to win the battle later.

Well said, I couldn't said it any better myself

[randall2580]

"Integration usually takes a year..." has been my point in previous posts - at least a year, some integration never happens (see Time Warner/AOL). So they couldn't integrate but they were shrewd enough to pick off the parts they needed and spun off the rest? I don't see it, it seems they made up their minds in a hurry that this was a big mistake. The new company's press release say they will be able to do everything New Bay has been bragging they have been doing so what parts did RIM "extract"? I still believe that as they were reviewing what they got, they realized they could do a lot of what they wanted to do with their own existing infrastructure and some partnerships without supporting an entirely new division. They were looking to cut staff and costs.

I do see the money issue. Facing a decision in arbitration (which btw RIM instigated) which went against them to Nokia which turned out to be 65 million plus ongoing payments, they couldn't face another costly suit while trying to build out BB10 and get it marketed. There can be no noise during this time that would have folks questioning the viability of RIM going forward.

[TomJasper]

Prudent business decision it was, BRAVO Thor and legal Dept.
You can't always get what you want, you get what you need!

I am peeved that RIM deicded to kowtow to Nokia and pay a hefty sum of 65Million, then sell NewBay for 55Million.

RIM needs to duke it out, and smash Nokia right in the gonuts! Seriously! Now all the Nokia fanboys are singing praises like . /facepalm

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

[Blacklatino]

@OP. Thanks for posting.

[TomJasper]

That would read, original costly mistake by former RIM CEO's turned into shrewd business move by new RIM CEO Thor.

Thanks for attempting to explane whats happened with Newbay, I'm still a litttle confused. You say it was a costly mistake on the part of old managment. At the same time a saying that RIM and Thor got out of the deal with what they wanted?
Whats that, a patent aggrement with newbays new owners or the ip and software they originaly wanted. Something else?
If there is ether of the above going on (I suspect there has to be) why do you call it a costly mistake instead of a shrewed business move?
Do we have any data to back all this up?

[TomJasper]

Facing a decision in arbitration (which btw RIM instigated) which went against them to Nokia ..... ¤Snipped for clarity of response¤

"instigated" ? - to provoke, goad,foment.

Can we agree to " initiated" ie. cause a process or action to begin, seems more lawyer speak by it's own right.

Arbitration in a legal setting is a gamble with little or no recourse but it is hardly an aggressive move compared to an all out sling the mud trial that could have other ramifications, such as the back lash the Fruit Company received.

[randall2580]

"instigated" ? - to provoke, goad,foment.

Can we agree to " initiated" ie. cause a process or action to begin, seems more lawyer speak by it's own right.

Arbitration in a legal setting is a gamble with little or no recourse but it is hardly an aggressive move compared to an all out sling the mud trial that could have other ramifications, such as the back lash the Fruit Company received.

I have no trouble changing to initiated - my point was it was RIM's idea to go the Arbitration route. There are benefits to arbitration - the principal being it's generally done behind closed doors, generally 2 press releases: 1 that the parties agree to arbitration, and 2. the decision.. Compare and contrast that to the "fun" Apple and Samsung are currently having in open court. It goes with my point about New Bay being that RIM do not need the public to be reading regular press releases coming from court rooms that they face potential large award if they lose.

[lyrical3]

Not a good business move. They should have at least capitalized on their own spending and then let the roots be cut off. Or the previous deal of $100 can be regarded as a bigger failure.