RIM Sells NewBay For $55.5 Million, Then Pays Nokia $65 Million

You may remember a little over a year ago, RIM purchased the cloud service and software company, NewBay, for a cool 100 million dollars. Then, this last August, rumors surfaced via the WSJ that RIM was going to be selling of NewBay to acquire some hard cash to take hold of their financial situation.

With the recent patent disputes with Nokia, it looks like the selloff of NewBay for 55 million dollars will almost compensate for the one time payment of 65 million that RIM and Nokia settled upon. However, RIM isn't in the clear just yet with Nokia, as All Things D reports that $2 - $5 per device royalties may be in order as well. This is not confirmed.


Picking up a company for $100 million, selling it for $55 million, only to have to pay out $65 million, doesn't look so good for RIM's pocket book. We have to remember that RIM was in a different spot when they first purchased NewBay. It was pre-Thorsten Heins era. However, RIM could have benefited very much from NewBay while they had the company - sucking out the good stuff before selling.

Either way, BlackBerry 10 is suppose to have great cloud support. And it's good to know that RIM hasn't taken that big of a hit with the Nokia patent settlement by using the assets from the NewBay selloff.