IBM shows interest in RIM's flagging phone business

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES (IBM) is reportedly interested in buying the Research In Motion (RIM) Enterprise Services unit.

According to Bloomberg, IBM "made an informal approach" to acquire RIM's enterprise division, which operates a network of secure servers used to support its formerly popular but recently poor selling Blackberry devices.

The news comes as RIM is rumoured to be preparing for some drastic restructuring.

Apparently the board snubbed IBM's interest because, as CEO Thorsten Heins puts it, its enterprise is "where BlackBerry lives best", and the company seems to want to wait and see what will happen with its delayed Blackberry 10 operating system.

However, it's been said that RIM's corporate customers are preparing to switch to IOS and Android, so the firm probably should get its skates on.

Speaking to Bloomberg in July, RIM corporate customers including Thames River Capital and Nationwide admitted that their companies are preparing contingency plans in case the worst happens and the companies lose their Blackberry services.

IBM's interest follows RIM's latest earnings call where the firm announced a loss of $518m and revealed that Blackberry 10 will be delayed until 2013. This caused some analysts to predict that the phone maker might go out of business.

RIM said it does not comment on rumour or speculation when we asked for a comment regarding the news.  µ