RIM Surge Continues After CEO Comments
Research In Motion jumped in early trading as investors continued to react to comments that it’s considering strategic options including a sale of its hardware production unit.
RIM advanced 7.2 percent to $16.98 at 8:50 a.m. in New York, after gaining 11 percent earlier. The stock has more than doubled since late September amid growing optimism for the company’s new BlackBerry 10 devices due Jan. 30.
Scotiabank today raised its rating on the shares to sector outperform, saying revenue from customers upgrading to the new devices alone could top analysts’ estimates.
RIM’s strategic options include “the sale of hardware production as well as licensing of our software,” CEO Thorsten Heins was reported as saying in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, which drove the company’s shares up 11 percent yesterday in Toronto when U.S. markets were closed.
Nick Manning, a spokesman for RIM said:
those are examples that Heins cited among the possibilities under consideration in a strategic review.
While Heins hasn’t ruled out a sale of the company, he has said RIM’s focus is on exploring strategic partnerships or software licensing deals.
Gus Papageorgiou, a Scotiabank analyst, raised his rating from sector perform and said the device maker will deliver more than 29 million BlackBerry 10 devices in fiscal year 2014.
