Noting Facebook as a Potential RIM Acquirer? (RIMM, GOOG, AAPL, AMZN, MSFT)

Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) has been the ongoing subject of takeover rumors and that has put in at least a near-term floor after the death spiral took away three-quarters of RIM’s market value over the last year.  Rumored acquirers have been tossed around like Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Samsung and others.  But there is a new name that has been thrown out there that is too hard to believe… “possibly Facebook.”  Is Blackberry even cool enough for Facebook?

The note that stood out is one that one the surface doesn’t look like much.  Stern Agee’s Shaw Wu has maintained a Neutral rating on RIM. Harmless and non-endorsing enough on the surface.  Wu noted, “Yesterday, there was renewed speculation on RIMM getting acquired, this time by Samsung, causing shares to rally 8%.” The mention of Facebook even in the past is one that is just hard to believe even if the analyst here is not predicting that Facebook would be a bidder.

The Intrinsic Value was brought up with 75 million subscribers, its patents, BlackBerry OS, and push network… still Wu noted, “we are unsure if a price of over $10 billion makes sense. Currently, the company has a market capitalization of $9.2 billion, meaning upside could be limited. We believe logical buyers are AMZN, MSFT, Samsung, and possibly Facebook.”

Wu sees $5 to $7 billion as a potential value, which implies $9 to $13 per share.

The research note concludes, “While we believe RIMM’s valuation is depressed, we maintain our NEUTRAL rating as we continue to be concerned with its fundamentals where the company faces major product transitions with its new BlackBerry 10 OS late this year. In addition, we remain concerned with the competitive environment as AAPL gets more aggressive and GOOG Android continues to grow.”

JON C. OGG