IBM may be interested in buying a large piece of RIM

Even though Samsung doesn’t seem interested in partnering up with Research in Motion, that doesn’t mean RIM is a total pariah. The Toronto Star is reporting that IBM has made an “informal approach” about acquiring RIM’s enterprise-services unit (which mans BlackBerry’s secure servers and is largely responsible for the device’s popularity among corporate and security-conscious clients). According to a couple of unnamed insiders, RIM would wait until after BlackBerry 10 phones launch in 2013 before making any decision about a sale. In the meantime, it’s business as usual—which, unfortunately, involves layoffs and store closures on the one hand and incongruous optimism from Thorsten Heins on the other. [Toronto Star]