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What is RIM worth?

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:29PM EST
BGR

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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.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.