IBM has present interest in getting the vital enterprise services business of struggling smartphone maker Research in Motion, stated in the Bloomberg report on Friday.
The report mentioned two unnamed sources, involving one person who told IBM has informally accessed RIM regarding to buying the unit. the expected value has been confirmed about $2 billion, industry experts suggests.
Officials from IBM and RIM refrain to comment on this report.
However, one person with knowledge of this particular situation stated Geekscover today that the report is “not true” and IBM is not interested in purchasing RIM’s crown jewel.
The RIM unit involves BlackBerry Enterprise Server assist and related software functions. The deal could also contain RIM’s network operations center.
The operation also control servers used to offer safe Internet connections for millions of RIM users. Many of those clients work at large banks and financial services firms that have come to believe on BES for proper security in email transmissions from and to mobile devices.
RIM states that approximately 250,000 BES servers and 78 million BlackBerry devices are used at workplaces through out the world.
IBM'S Black Barry
The enterprise services business is largely believed RIM’s crown jewel, even as the old smartphone leader has exerted effort since the launch of the iPhone five years ago to make smartphones awesome to consumers.
The releasing of smartphones running RIM’s BlackBerry10 OS have been delayed over the past year and are predicted to release early in 2013.
RIM Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins has in this weeks been conducting a strategic discussion at RIM amid layoffs of about one third of the company’s work force.
Heins stated that RIM may license the BlackBerry operating system to third parties, but has not particularly talked to sell the enterprise business unit or the NOC.
Any deal to purchase RIM’s enterprises services businesses would have to keep an agreement on whether RIM would maintain control over part or all of the NOC, involving consumer related traffic, analysts stated.
Ken Dulaney, an expert at Gartner, told an IBM contract of RIM’s enterprise unit “would create a huge sense to me. Customers would love acknowledging that an IBM is behind this.”
Still, he told RIM would not sell the unit, considering that the company has some about $2.2 billion and no debt and would not want to cease such a significant asset.
“RIM might stop just the NOC and keep the BES servers that go on premise with customers,” Dulaney revealed.
