Struggling maker of smartphones Research in Motion is negotiating with other companies over licensing its software or selling the whole company to a new owner. Among the likely candidates to buy the maker of Blackberry devices are HTC as well as Samsung Electronics. Keeping the situation in mind, it is possible that RIM is talking to virtually all potentially interested parties over possible partnerships.

Although RIM has been facing dramatic problems in the recent quarters and continues to struggle, it is clear that the company still has a number of assets that may be of interest to other parties. In particular, it has its Blackberry Messenger technology as well as some other functionality that could help companies from other ecosystems, including Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone, to differentiate themselves from direct competitors. Some believe that RIM is about to start licensing its Blackberry software to others, namely HTC and Samsung.

"We think some of this has already been started with RIM likely agreeing to license Blackberry 10 to Samsung, HTC, and possibly others. This would help create a critical mass for the ecosystem and maintain RIM’s monthly service revenue; however, it puts more pressure on the hardware business in the short term. Longer term, it possibly gets people hooked on the RIM ecosystem and may in fact allow them to sell more BB 10 handsets (if they are able to create compelling handsets)," wrote Peter Misek, an analyst with Jefferies & Co.

There are other options for RIM as well: to sell the company to HTC, Samsung or other potentially interested parties. BGR web-site believes that Samsung is the most likely candidate to take over RIM. The reason why the deal has not been struck just yet is the price that RIM execs are asking. Current market capitalization of RIM is around $8.5 billion, whereas the management wants to get from $12 to $15 billion.

It is not the first report about possible take over of RIM. Amazon, Microsoft and Nokia showed interest to acquire RIM, but no deal has ever been signed.
 

HTC, RIM and Samsung did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Samsung, HTC