Research In Motion – Ripe For The Picking?

Fox Business is reporting today that Research In Motion RIMM could be preparing itself for takeover bids.

The vultures are certainly circling, with RIMM falling alarmingly away for the $80 billion it was worth just three years ago.

Marisa Conway, account director at Brodeur Partners, told Benzinga that, “It is RIM's standard policy to decline comment on rumors and speculation.

That certainly isn't a denial, and it would seem that RIMM's future as an independent company is seriously in doubt. Quite how they got to this point is a bit of a mystery. The Blackberry device that is the company's showpiece is an absolute success, and yet it is struggling to hold onto third place behind Google GOOG and Apple AAPL. The problem, apparently, is that RIMM has rested on its laurels after the success of the Blackberry. “If you went through a checklist of what a mobile company shouldn't do, RIM would have hit all of them,” said Jon Rettinger, president of tech blog TechnoBuffalo.com. “They run the risk of going the Nokia route: a company that had really strong market share but began faltering and failing”

That is why Research In Motion is now vulnerable. The mighty, it seems, fall fast.