Research In Motion Soars on Takeover Talk

On top of that, the deal with Dell puts Good in a position to make serious inroads into RIM's core market.

"Now Good Technology has an enterprise partner with substantial know-how to get solutions within the enterprise. If you're an enterprise customer who's gone to Dell for everything you own, now you can get wireless email very much like RIM," explains Burden. "So the attention has turned to RIM, with people asking, what is next for it? How do you combat a partnership like that? The ideal thing for RIM may be to sell or have a similar partnership with someone like an H-P."

H-P's own iPaq handheld devices don't offer the always-on email feature. "If H-P is interested in RIM, it would have a lot to do with the fact that RIM has a foothold in enterprise, that it has brand recognition and the technology for one of the key wireless applications for the enterprise, which is always-on email," says Burden. "The thought is that if a company like H-P or IBM or Sybase(SY Quote) were to take over the company, they could bring RIM's technology to the next level; they could it bring it to the masses."

Burnishing its appeal, RIM's business has shown a turnaround lately. Trader and analyst Gabriel Erdi of the (TPFQX Quote)Marketocracy Technology Plus fund says the fund exited its short position in the stock at the beginning of the year. "Our primary concern at the time was just competition from Palm(PALM Quote), Handspring(HAND Quote) and Sybase and how they were going to survive," he says. "But they've since signed licensing agreements with Microsoft(MSFT Quote) and Nokia(NOK Quote), that should help them going forward. It looks like they're on the right path."

Since the November quarter, RIM has managed to pump up quarterly revenue from $74 million to $87 million to $104 million, while narrowing its loss from $92 million to $31 million to $8 million, points out Erdi.

But at the same time its business has been on an upswing, RIM's stock has raced upwards, making any potential acquisition much more expensive, he adds.

The stock has more than doubled in the past year on the basis of its closing price of $27.28, compared with its Aug. 1, 2002 close of $11.04.