Do you remember that rumor yesterday about Samsung wanting to buy Research In Motion? Well, turns out that was horse apples, as Samsung is officially stating that it doesn’t plan to buy RIM and that it never planned to.
“We haven’t considered acquiring the firm and are not interested in (buying RIM),” Samsung spokesman James Chung told Reuters.
It appears the rumor has been busted but there is always the possibility that Samsung is massaging the truth to aid negotiations. The rumor itself came from an unnamed source at the Boy Genius Report, which has a solid record with RIM rumors but has also put out some blatantly false rumors in the past (iPhone 5 exclusive on Sprint). Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some discussion between the two but it probably never advanced to the stages where it was really worth talking about. Also, RIM’s stock took a nice bump yesterday, so there was a financial incentive for someone or some entity to leak that news to BGR.
There’s still the possibility that RIM could license its technology to companies like HTC or Samsung and that type of deal would probably be more palatable for RIM and the Canadian government. Still, I think it’s important to remember that no matter how poorly 2011 was for RIM, it still increased its overall BlackBerry footprint and remains a profitable company. While I wouldn’t be overly optimistic in Waterloo, the story isn’t as bad as some in the press like to paint it – it will be if there aren’t decisive moves, though.
[Via Reuters, photo via Shutterstock, pjcross]