interesting stuff from the san jose merc's good morning silicon valley:
The iPhone, the gPhone ... and maybe the microPhone?
By JOHN MURRELL
When stock prices take the kind of beating that we're witnessing, the emergence of potential bargains always leads to a sort of fantasy league for takeover speculation, in which analysts and pundits play at making matches between the vulnerable and their possible suitors. These hypotheticals should always be taken well salted, but they still can make for interesting thought exercises.
Today's player is Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek, who in comments to Reuters gave fresh legs to a possibility first raised in August -- that Microsoft might snap up BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. The thinking is that Microsoft would have its own smartphones to compete with Apple's iPhone and the devices running on Google's Android platform. "RIM is a massive strategic fit" for Microsoft, said Misek. "I'm fairly certain they have a standing offer to buy them at $50 (a share)." RIM's shares traded at close to $150 just a few months ago, but a slide that only steepened today has left it within a few bucks of that supposed target. The share price would have to drop another $10 or so to make $50 a premium offer, but the way things are going, that's hardly a stretch. A $50 price would make the deal worth just over $28 billion, and Microsoft is flush enough to pull it off without having to tap the credit markets. The question is whether Microsoft really feels compelled to get into the hardware wars or if it's satisfied to compete on the platform side with Windows Mobile. Neither company graced the speculation with a comment.
Meanwhile, up at RIM's Waterloo, Ontario, headquarters, they're trying to stay focused, getting their just unveiled iPhone competitor launched (see "BlackBerry Storm successfully weathers first round of reviews"), and, rumor has it, already working on the next two generations.
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