Research In Motion was coy at first regarding the exploration a possible sale, but chief executive Thorsten Henis openly admitted that the company will explore any and all options after RIM’s huge first-quarter miss last month. The Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker is persisting with its current efforts despite another BlackBerry 10 delay, but the right offer or combination of offers could certainly change RIM’s course. As the company continues to cut costs, and with the potential launch of its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone still at least six months away, a question presents itself: What is RIM worth?
Cloud solutions provider Firmex sought to answer that question by compiling data from a number of top financial institutions into an infographic that looks at the estimated value of RIM’s assets and considers a number of companies that might be interested in a partial or outright sale.
In the end, Firmex sees RIM’s value reaching as high as $8.1 billion — nearly twice the $4.2 billion estimate put forth recently by Canaccord Genuity — though RIM’s IP portfolio remains the biggest question mark; Firmex sees the value of RIM’s patents ranging from as little as $1 billion to as much as $4 billion. RIM’s base of 70 million users, including 20 million enterprise users, is valued at $2.5 billion and its services are worth approximately $1.6 billion according to the study.
Firmex goes on to suggest a number of companies that might be interested in RIM, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and even Apple, and then outlines some pros and cons for each scenario. The firm’s full infographic follows below.
