Canadian Gov't Greenlights Potential Sale of Research in Motion

From DailyTech: Things have reached the crisis point for Waterloo, Ontario based phonemaker Research in Motion, Ltd. (TSE:RIM). Once the darling of the industry, pushing the smartphone into the mainstream, the gadgetmaker has since been passed in the demanding handset market by Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone and a host of Android phones from Asian gadgetmakers.

The dire state of affairs at RIM was highlighted by the company's first GAAP adjusted net loss after years of big profits. While that loss was driven by a one time charge (otherwise the company would have posted a profit of $418M USD), it nonetheless highlighted the financial fragility of the veteran firm.

The loss prompted the resignation/explusion of company co-founder and long time co-CEO Jim Balsillie. And it prompted new CEO Thorsten Heins -- in the uneviable position of trying to right what appears to be a sinking ship -- to talk about something some top investors had long been clamoring for: a sale.

A potential sale received a boost on Friday when Canadian Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said that Canada would not move to block a foreign takeover/purchase of RIM. He commented, "They will be the masters of their own destiny. We would like RIM obviously to be successful as a Canadian company, which it has been — a very innovative and successful company."

While Mr. Heins insists that a sale is not the leading option for the troubled phonemaker, he acknowledged for the first time that it's an option on the table as RIM conducts an exhaustive review of its business.

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