Twitter Chimes in on Amazon, Research in Motion Takeover Rumors

In a story that was announced by Reuters yesterday, supposedly six months ago, Amazon AMZN was on the cusp of acquiring Research in Motion RIMM. At that time, many believed that Microsoft MSFT would respond with an acquisition of Nokia NOK, however, that never happened. Six months ago, Google GOOG announced a plan to acquire Motorola Mobility MMI, in a $12.5 billion deal. So this makes sense for Amazon if it wanted to enter the tablet/smartphone/patent market. Might as well takeover the already beaten Blackberry maker. At that time, shares of Research in Motion were already down 50% on the year, trading down to around $30 per share, after starting the year above $60. Amazon probably thought that it was getting a great deal. However, in hindsight, it would have been a terrible deal. Shares of RIM from then are down over 50%, down below $14 per share. Earlier today, @Benzinga tweeted our story, Five Things Amazon Could do with Research in Motion, and we received some engagement in the Twittersphere. @DanielGschwend tweeted "if RIMM is not accepting voluntarily a take over bid than it should be a hostile bid at $ 30 shareholder will tender at that price." Shareholders would definitely tender at that price, as it is about a 114% premium at current prices. @TradeJunky1 threw some humor in his tweet when he said, "$AMZN could buy all of $RIMM playbooks at RETAIL put their OS on them ditch the kindle fire and cut margins on their tablets LOL." To get an idea what the analysts' were thinking, this morning, Benzinga spoke with stellar tech analyst, Shaw Wu at Sterne Agee, for his thoughts on the rumors that RIM could be bought out. “At the right price it makes sense, but right now it's not clear,” Wu said. “Right now RIM is valued at $7 billion. They probably won't take an offer unless it was around $10 billion.” Long-term, Wu said that he's not clear about the value of Research in Motion, and that he thinks Microsoft would make the most sense in purchasing the company. Currently, shares of Research in Motion are trading over 10% higher today, after the news broke from Reuters that Amazon, at one point, was interested in the company. However, year-to-date the slide continues. Shares of Research in Motion are down about 76% on the year.

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