[JasW]

So Andrew Ross Sorkin, the editor at large of the NY Times' financial news service Dealbook suggests that Apple should spend some of the cash its drowning in on RIM -- and possibly produce an iPhone with a BB keyboard:

Suggestions for an Apple Shopping List

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

Question: What would you do if you had $117 billion?

That’s the challenge facing Tim Cook, Apple’s chief, whose company’s cash hoard keeps growing — by about $1 billion a week.

He could hold onto it. He could increase Apple’s dividend, which he instituted this year for the first time.

Or he could spend it.

Just last week, Mr. Cook acquired AuthenTec, a mobile security company, for $356 million in cash — a price equal to pocket lint for a company with the war chest the size of Apple’s.

The real question is whether Mr. Cook would ever spend Apple’s money on an “elephant” — Wall Street parlance for a huge deal.

Apple denizens often say that the company is not interested in deal making. It has, after all, invented some of today’s most successful consumer products. But that view misunderstands Apple’s history: some of its most important innovations were not invented within Apple; they were purchased from other companies.

For example, the touch-sensitive gesture technology that made the iPhone and iPad possible was invented and patented by FingerWorks, which Apple acquired in 2005. Siri? Apple bought it in 2010. Even Apple’s current Macintosh operating system was an acquisition of sorts. It is built on the back of NeXT, acquired from Steve Jobs (they got him to return as part of the deal, too) in 1996. (Pixar, Mr. Jobs’s other big success, was an acquisition as well. He bought the company from George Lucas as part of a spinoff from Lucasfilm in 1986.)

A year before Mr. Jobs died, he strongly hinted that Apple would consider a big deal. “We strongly believe that one or more very strategic opportunities may come along, that we are in a unique position to take advantage of because of our strong cash position,” Mr. Jobs said in a call with analysts in 2010.

Having all that money can be daunting, so to help Mr. Cook, here is a potential shopping list — some must-buys and some pie-in-the-sky targets — that he may want to consider:

***

RESEARCH IN MOTION Yes, this one may be a head-scratcher, considering that the iPhone seems to have eaten RIM’s BlackBerry for breakfast — and lunch. But with a marke value of $3.7 billion it is a relative bargain and could be had for four weeks’ worth of Apple’s spare cash).

Such a deal would instantly put Apple into the enterprise market, giving it access to corporate and government customers that require RIM’s highly secure servers. Apple could build access into RIM’s network directly into future iPhones and maybe even create an iPhone with BlackBerry’s famous keyboard, which for many of us would create the ultimate smartphone.

RIM’s relationships with corporate and government customers could be leveraged to sell other products like computers and iPads. RIM also owns QNX, a software that is being used in its next-generation BlackBerry devices. More important for Apple, QNX is used as an in-dashboard operating system, and it is already in 20 million cars, like Chryslers and Porsches.

Finally, there are RIM’s patents, said to be worth $1 billion to $4 billion alone, a virtual treasure trove for a company that is locked in brutal patent wars with rivals. Google paid $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility last year, in part, to secure the company’s patent portfolio.

***

source: Suggestions for an Apple Shopping List - NYTimes.com

[Thunderbuck]

RIM is probably a better fit for Microsoft than it is for Apple, though RIM is potentially valuable just for its enterprise MDM platform, I guess.

I still have a hard time seeing any competitor take RIM outright, though; there's almost more value in just taking a big minority stake. I COULD see private equity move in, but they'd have to convince a lot of investors to take a very big loss.

[DuexNoir]

These constant suggestions of other companies like Apple or Google taking over RIM fails to add that such transactions require the approval of the Canadian Government, which have hinted that they may just support RIM. Given RIM's wide use in secure government areas around the world and the value of that security software may be a good reason for the Canadian Government to withhold RIM sell off and keep it as Canadian territory.

[mikeo007]

If RIM is ever sold off, it will be worth more in pieces than as a whole. At that point, the Canadian government won't have any say in what happens to the company.

That being said, I don't think apple would have any interest in much of RIM other than maybe the patent portfolio. Apple's OS philosophy is the exact opposite of QNX and their approach to enterprise is to just provide the devices and the capabilities, and let the adopters worry about enterprise compatibility.

[pcguy514]

Mike007 obviously knows something Stephen Harper don't. Care to share more details...

[mikeo007]

I know plenty of things that Stephen Harper doesn't know. You'll have to be more specific.

There is one thing that both Stephen and I know: the Canadian government will not block a RIM sale.

[Laura Knotek]

I don't see where Apple would want any part of BES/BIS. Apple has no interest in anything server-related. Apple is content letting Windows, Linux and Unix run the servers.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

[app_Developer]

I know plenty of things that Stephen Harper doesn't know. You'll have to be more specific.

There is one thing that both Stephen and I know: the Canadian government will not block a RIM sale.

If they interfere with a sale, it would destroy the ability for newer, smaller Canadian tech firms to raise money.

[mikeo007]

In addition to that, it will also set (reinforce?) a bad precident for companies to think that they will be bailed out after making poor business decisions. The government does not want to act as a safety net.

[scalemaster34]

IF BB10 were to not be successful - What would the Gov option be if they block a sale...?

Watch the company sell off their assist one at a time until nothing is left? Or maybe the Canadian government would like to give RIM a bailout loan. Of course to do that they would need some assurance that RIM could become profitable and pay the loan back.

RIM isn't a mining company that is digging assists out of the Canadian ground. And even as an employer, not sure that RIM is going to have very many Canadian employees in the near future.

There might be a little more red tape involved, but RIM is in a position where being bought is almost a forgone conclusion.

[Superfly_FR]

Funny how these "investors" don't know a word about "culture antagonism".
Here we say "the wedding of a carp and a rabbit" ...
dang.

[pcguy514]

How many of those start ups got they seed money direct and indirectly from rim?
And as mentioned before it's not a reward for bad practices but to protect a vital secure service for governments, and to keep jobs. Bad decisions aside, RIM still puts millions (if not billions ) into the economy. Meh I'm not playing fantasy monopoly.

All we can do no matter how we feel is to wait and see what happens.


Ps I bet even my dog knows a few tricks Harper haven't learned yet. lol.

[Sith_Apprentice]

I would imagine that conversations about mergers/partnerships/being acquired are happening in Waterloo. But I would also hazard a guess that these would predicate on how BB10 does. For those that have used the actual hardware/software combination it is VERY nice, even in its current state. The question is, how well will it be received?

[hootyhoo]

These constant suggestions of other companies like Apple or Google taking over RIM fails to add that such transactions require the approval of the Canadian Government, which have hinted that they may just support RIM. Given RIM's wide use in secure government areas around the world and the value of that security software may be a good reason for the Canadian Government to withhold RIM sell off and keep it as Canadian territory.

The Canadian government has already said that they would not block a Rim sale.

[hootyhoo]

Mike007 obviously knows something Stephen Harper don't. Care to share more details...

I'm not Mike, but here you go:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/id...20530?irpc=932

The Canadian government won't block the sale of RIM.

[W Hoa]

RIM has approx. 550 million shares outstanding. Watsa, Balsillie and Lazaridus control over 23% of RIM shares. The next five largest holders bring that up to about 30% or 165 million shares.

In order for anyone to take out RIM they will need at minimum 51% of the shares. If the top holders refuse to tender their shares in a takeover attempt the buyout will require 275 million shares bought or what would now be almost 70% of the remaining shares.

That is a daunting and potentially expensive prospect for even AAPL.

[hootyhoo]

RIM has approx. 550 million shares outstanding. Watsa, Balsillie and Lazaridus control over 23% of RIM shares. The next five largest holders bring that up to about 30% or 165 million shares.

In order for anyone to take out RIM they will need at minimum 51% of the shares. If the top holders refuse to tender their shares in a takeover attempt the buyout will require 275 million shares bought or what would now be almost 70% of the remaining shares.

That is a daunting and potentially expensive prospect for even AAPL.

It may not be as daunting as you think.

If watsa could get his investment back (he also has shareholders to answer to) I think that he would gladly remove that albatross from his neck.

[JasW]

RIM has approx. 550 million shares outstanding. Watsa, Balsillie and Lazaridus control over 23% of RIM shares. The next five largest holders bring that up to about 30% or 165 million shares.

In order for anyone to take out RIM they will need at minimum 51% of the shares. If the top holders refuse to tender their shares in a takeover attempt the buyout will require 275 million shares bought or what would now be almost 70% of the remaining shares.

That is a daunting and potentially expensive prospect for even AAPL.

Even offering a premium of $20 a share and buying 100% of RIM's shares outstanding, Apple still would only use up 10% of its cash on hand -- and it would make that back by mid-October.

[cgk]

It's not going to happen, apple might be interested in IP but little else, it would make more sense for them to buy that off RIM (and provide RIM with a perpetual license for usage).

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Board Express

[dentynefire]

I like talk like this as it proves one thing: RIM is valuable and when its transition to BB10 is complete it will have a very very good platform! One that others either want a part of or others just want.

RIM is on the right path, but again, the waiting is killing everyone

[mikeo007]

I like talk like this as it proves one thing: RIM is valuable and when its transition to BB10 is complete it will have a very very good platform! One that others either want a part of or others just want.

RIM is on the right path, but again, the waiting is killing everyone

This proves nothing about the BB10 platform at all though. As for being valuable, RIM is only worth what someone is willing to pay. And at this point, there are no (public) offers on the table. RIM is not currently for sale, so their value can only be estimated by pricing out their assets and patent portfolio.

[jwn66]

I'm not Mike, but here you go:

Canada government wishes RIM well, won't speculate on takeover

The Canadian government won't block the sale of RIM.

The government says alot of things that turn out to be the opposite, and the government could change next week, are you new to canada or something? or even from here? RIM's never going to be sold off outright especially to an american company, lol. It's just not going to happen without restrictions.

[TheScionicMan]

These aren't car parts. I love these notions of grabbing this piece here and fitting it with that piece over there. Powering this device off of the other network, etc. Yeah, RIM's KeyBoard Division builds them like no other, just assign them to the iPhone 7...

The Sims - Smartphone Tycoon

[mikeo007]

The government says alot of things that turn out to be the opposite, and the government could change next week, are you new to canada or something? or even from here? RIM's never going to be sold off outright especially to an american company, lol. It's just not going to happen without restrictions.

Ya, it's not like they've ever stood by and watched other big Canadian companies get scooped up right?

Zellers
Tim Hortons
Hudson's Bay Company

[dentynefire]

This proves nothing about the BB10 platform at all though. As for being valuable, RIM is only worth what someone is willing to pay. And at this point, there are no (public) offers on the table. RIM is not currently for sale, so their value can only be estimated by pricing out their assets and patent portfolio.

Didn't say BB10 was complete only that RIMs assets are valuable at least to some companies. So taking these asests and improving their OS is essentially what the market wants. Until BB10 ships no one outside of RIM knows the good or the bad BUT at least what they offer is valuable its just the older product portfolio isn't the "how" people want it. I doubt there can be an argument about that