Research In Motion Ltd (RIM) advanced 11 percent in late trading on Tuesday after reports said Microsoft Corp and Nokia Oyj where mulling a joint bid, while Amazon.com Inc was considering buying the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone.
RIM “turned down takeover overtures” from Amazon because it wanted to fix its shortcomings independently, Reuters reported on Tuesday. That was followed by a Wall Street Journal article that said Microsoft and Nokia “flirted with the idea of making a joint bid” in recent months. Both cited unidentified people familiar with the matter.
Before the reports, RIM shares had tumbled to their lowest level in almost eight years. Last week, the company disclosed a delay in a new generation of BlackBerrys designed to fuel a rebound, adding to challenges that include lost market share and a tablet device that bombed with shoppers.
The 78 percent plunge in RIM’s shares this year before yesterday leaves it vulnerable to an approach from suitors, said Sameet Kanade, an analyst at Northern Securities Inc.
“At this valuation, it is a strong acquisition target,” said Kanade, who is based in Toronto and rates RIM a “speculative buy.” He does not own the stock.
RIM rose to as high as US$13.85 after closing at US$12.52 in New York on Tuesday.
Jamie Ernst, a spokeswoman for Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, declined to comment, as did Mary Osako, a spokeswoman for Seattle-based Amazon, and Peter Wootton, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft.
Nokia does not comment on rumor or speculation, said Doug Dawson, a spokesman for the Espoo, Finland-based company.
RIM trades at 2.83 times 12-month earnings, the lowest of any communications-equipment maker with a market capitalization greater than US$1 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
The status of discussions between Microsoft and Nokia was unclear, according to the Wall Street Journal. Amazon hired an investment bank to review a possible deal for RIM, but it did not make a formal offer, Reuters said.
Microsoft and Nokia might be able to use RIM in their rivalry with Apple Inc, the largest smartphone maker. Amazon is also vying with Apple in the tablet market.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS