Research In Motion Ltd. last week received a $25 million investment from Nortel Networks and an order for more than 2,000 BlackBerry handheld devices in the next three months from Intel Corp., leading to a strong surge in the company’s stock.
The Nortel pact is a technology and marketing agreement to co-develop wireless Internet technologies and expand the wireless Internet market internationally. Although the $25 million investment represents an equity stake of less than 1 percent, RIM officials said it characterizes the seriousness of Nortel’s interest.
“It’s a very strong statement of their commitment,” said Jim Balsilli, RIM chairman and co-chief executive officer. “It’s a very powerful alliance and I expect to see a broad array of exciting plans.”
Balsilli would not discuss the exact nature of the companies’ work, but said the two complement each other well. RIM is a hardware manufacturer with no infrastructure alliances, he said, while Nortel is an infrastructure provider with no hardware commitments. Both have a mutual commitment to open Internet standards, he added.
“RIM and Nortel share a very common bond in open Internet standards, [Internet Protocol], and getting that to the market,” Balsilli said. “This is an alliance to push the convergence of Internet and wireless.”
In addition, both companies are located in Ontario, RIM in Waterloo and Nortel in Brampton.
Nortel’s investment will take place at prevailing market prices, and is subject to regulatory approval.
The news boosted RIM’s stock $5.87 to $55.25, from $49.37, the day the agreement was announced.
The next day, Intel and RIM entered into a supply agreement, the first stage of which calls for Intel to deploy several BlackBerry Enterprise Servers and more than 2,000 BlackBerry handheld devices in the next three months.
Intel said it will install the BlackBerry solution in multiple offices across North America. BlackBerry provides mobile access to corporate e-mail, contact lists, calendar information and schedules residing on Microsoft Exchange servers.
The news helped propel RIM’s stock further upward, raising another $16.87 to a 52-week high of $72.12.
In other RIM news, Optus Software Inc. announced the company implemented its FACSys Fax Messaging Gateway, integrated with fax routing software from Onset, so BlackBerry users can have faxes forwarded to their two-way wireless devices.
