Who Wants BlackBerry? Three Potential Buyers for RIM

Around 50% of consumers are interested in purchasing a tablet computer, a
number thats only going to continue growing in the next few years. Of those
potential customers, 95% of them are interested in purchasing Apple s (NASDAQ:
AAPL ) iPad. Other tablets don't fare as well. Only around 10% of prospective
buyers are interested in Hewlett-Packard s (NASDAQ: HPQ ) TouchPad. Just 8% are
interested in Samsungs Galaxy Tab or Motorola s (NYSE: MMI ) Xoom. Then theres
Research in Motion s (NASDAQ: RIMM ) PlayBook. Just 4% of potential tablet
buyers want a BlackBerry-branded tablet. It isnt just the meager interest in
RIMs new tablet business thats the problem, though. Interest in RIM is weak
across the board. The stock was trading below $26 on Wednesday, down from about
$48 during this time last year, and down from nearly $130 in August 2008. Its
share of the ever-growing smartphone industry is expected to decline to about
13% by 2015. It laid off 11% of its workforce at the end of July. Times are
rough, and theyre likely to get rougher by the time RIM releases its next
earnings report, in September. Is there hope for RIM in the arms of another?
Google s (NASDAQ: GOOG ) purchase $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola is a good
sign for RIM. After all, RIM controls a large swath of technology patents, a
commodity Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) and Apple have turned into artillery in the
mobile technology war. The Wall Street Journal s Rolfe Winkler doesnt think that
RIM is an acquisition target, though at least not yet . The company will, at
this rate of attrition, only get cheaper. So who might buy RIM and how would its
business fit into those potential buyers' ecosystems? Some potential suitors:
Dell For all of Dell 's (NASDAQ: DELL ) woes, the company isnt having a
terrible 2011 . Its consumer PC business is struggling, but consumer PCs havent
been Dells bread and butter for a long time. Business sales keep Dell earning
money, and those business sales are up almost 7% in 2011, with revenue up more
than 5%. The company has multiple devices in the pipeline to augment its
business services, including tablets that run both Googles Android and
Microsofts Windows operating systems. At the right price, RIMs technology and
patents could be potent additions to Dells business division. They would give
Dell exclusive control of a trusted (if faded) brand in the business world.
What's more, RIMs technology still commands enough interest amongst users for
Dell to avoid the perilous situation HP got itself into after purchasing Palm.
Microsoft There is absolutely no guarantee that Microsoft and Nokia s (NYSE: NOK
) gambit to make Windows phones a serious competitor against Google and Apple
will work. Nokias prominence in the international market is declining and
Microsoft has never found the secret recipe for capturing the mobile market in
the way it did with PCs. In the event that its partnership with Nokia fails,
it's doubtful that Microsoft will simply give up the mobile ghost. A solution
would be to start manufacturing its own devices. Purchasing RIM would give
Microsoft an even broader portfolio of software and hardware patents as well as
an established mobile device manufacturing business. But as it would for Dell,
RIM would have to go to Microsoft at a relatively cheap price to be considered a
bargain. Hewlett-Packard Rolfe Winkler thinks that HPs purchase of Palm rules it
out as a potential RIM buyer. Given HPs poor overall performance in 2011 and the
bath its taking on the TouchPad its first major original release using the new
Palm-developed webOS mobile operating system that assessment isnt out of
bounds. As is true for Microsoft, though, HP could gain a greater foothold in
the mobile market by controlling RIMs wealth of patents, especially when coupled
with patents gained through Palms business. HP would hold the lions share of
patents from the early days of the smartphone industry, something that would
make the company a very real threat to manufacturers like Apple. As of this
writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named
here. Follow him on Twitter at