If a new report from Reuters is correct, the troubled Blackberry maker Research in Motion received some interest from Amazon into acquiring RIM. The report, which cites unnamed sources, claims that in the summer of 2011, Amazon hired an unnamed investment bank to look into possibly acquiring RIM.
The report says that no formal buyout offer was ever submitted by Amazon to RIM. In the end, RIM"s board of directors apparently told Amazon, as well as other unnamed companies, that they want RIM and its current co-CEO Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie to stay independent and continue on their own track to release new smartphones and develop the upcoming Blackberry 10 mobile operating system.
While the acquisition talks may not be in the works, Amazon and RIM are in discussions to partner on other projects, according to the story. That includes possibly offering Blackberry users access to Amazon"s online music service.
RIM has suffered from a series of setbacks in the past year including poor sales of its Blackberry Playbook tablet, its smartphones losing market share to phones from Apple and various Android-based devices, and delays for the launch of its next generation phones with the Blackbery 10 operating system to late 2012. The company"s CEOs announced last week they would each take only $1 a year in salary.