Microsoft Contemplating a Purchase of RIM?

Rumors surfaced this past Friday that Microsoft is contemplating a purchase of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM). I first saw this juicy tidbit mentioned in Paul Thurrott's WinInfo Short Takes: Week of Septembmer 3 (InstantDoc ID: 96953). Soon after I read Paul's piece, I noticed that Computerworld had entered the fray with an article detailing the rumor, including comments from industry analysts.

This particular rumor is near and dear to my heart as it was the catalyst for the Rumor Mill blog.

Back in May of this year, I had wondered aloud on the Situation Room (now IT 911) blog about two announcements RIM had recently made that left me scratching my head (InstantDoc ID: 96038). The first was RIM planning to release a "virtual BlackBerry" to run atop Windows Mobile 6 devices later this year. The second was the release of a plugin for Visual Studio to foster BlackBerry application development.

Back then I was speaking with Karen Forster about these developments and she had asked me if I was thinking that Microsoft might be on the path to buy RIM. I replied that this was certainly possible. Months later we've now come full circle as this rumor was again brought to light this past Friday.

I'd love to hear from some readers about this. Do you think this would be a good thing for Microsoft to do or not? Or do you think this rumor is hogwash?

Have you been playing mole on your own? Is your gut telling you that something epic is going on in the technology world that no one else seems to realize? Send your suspicions to me at rumors@mikerochip.com and I'll put my network of industry moles on it. Names will be changed to protect the innocent.