Things have been rather bad for Research-In-Motion, the company that created the iconic BlackBerry smartphone. It has been on a downward spiral with a number of top personnel having left the company. Now, the company is considering hiring a financial advisor which would help it go for one of the two options – the first is to license its patents; the second is to invite outside investments to keep the company sailing.
The abysmal circumstances that RIM is currently facing are manifest in the fact that the company’s shares have plummeted by 75 percent! Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone and other Android devices continue to snatch away the smartphone market share from RIM’s BlackBerry.
In face of all this, it seems only natural that RIM is considering alternate options. There had been rumors that the executives at RIM may be considering selling the company but now, reports say that they have ruled out any such possibility and intend to keep things afloat on their own.
To do this, it is being expected that RIM will soon be hiring a Canadian bank and a global bank to come to its help and aid it in finalizing its future course. The future course, right now, is two options in all. One is that RIM can license its patents. RIM’s patents are indeed quite precious and many smartphone vendors as well as other tech companies may line up to lay their hands on them if indeed RIM goes with this option.
However, RIM’s second option is to find an outside investment. But that seems unlikely, given the probability that not many would be interested in investing in a rather failing company. One alternate for RIM executives remain, though. While they still have these Plan B options, they may still find a way to license the upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS. According to analysts, the BB10 can renew life at RIM and RIM can move from hardware to software and services by licensing off BB10. But all that remains in the future, for now.
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