According to new reports online retailer Amazon has made a bid to buy struggling phone company Research In Motion.
According to sources, RIM rejected the offer from Amazon after the manufacturer of the Kindle bought in an an investment bank to assist them in possible acquisition.
Reuters said the offer was turned down. RIM executives instead wanted to solve the company’s own problems and also thought that the company’s poor recent performance might spook possible buyers.
“Until you stabilise the platform, people are going to be very nervous about spending $10 billion or more,” a contact said.
HTC and Samsung may have considered the possibility but rejected any possibilities outright. The two depend primarily on Android for their smartphone business and were said to not see any value in picking what for them would be a third or fourth platform.
RIM also purportedly believed that it would be in a better position to take advantage of its push e-mail and BlackBerry Messenger technology than an outsider. The Waterloo, Ontario company may now even consider some of the outside talk as a nuisance and may have shut out investment and private equity groups that were “distracting,” one contact described.
Takeover talk hasn’t stopped, but current discussions are thought to center on companies hoping that RIM sinks further so they can buy it at a cheaper price.
