RIM now worth only $14.45 billion, should Microsoft buy?

3 years ago RIM was worth more than $70 billion.  Today the still proud company is worth less than 1/5 of that value, $14.45 billion. Even then there were rumours that Microsoft was looking at buying RIM, and now with the company by comparison extremely cheap, the question arises again.

Buying RIM, who is now worth less than double Microsoft’s recent Skype purchase, would offer Microsoft unprecedented access to business communications, carrier relationships and even consumer relationships, and unlike Nokia a brand that means something in USA.

Of course RIM is in this position because they are losing their hold on this very market, and Microsoft may well just be catching a falling knife, but then it is a very cheap knife, with the company’s price less than 5 times of its annual earnings, which is pretty ridiculous for a tech company.

If Microsoft did buy the company they could run it as a going concern and strip it for its assets while transitioning their customers and technology to Windows Phone. Whether this will be worth the trouble and expense (estimated at $17 billion is a buyout premium) is of course not clear but such a deal would certainly have many attractive aspects, especially with Dell as a Blackberry challenger seriously fizzling away.

Do our readers think the time for a deal has come? Let us know below.