With every passing day it looks more and more like BlackBerry maker Research in Motion will have to settle with Virginia based patent holding company NTP over a patent infringement case that RIM lost a few years ago. The big questions are when will RIM settle with NTP and how much will they settle for? Some believe that the price tag could be upwards of $1 billion U.S.
Even though RIM is a pretty healthy company and they have a lot of cash on hand, that kind of payout will significantly affect the stock price adversely. Some analysts believe that the stock price that has been hanging around in the low $60s could work it’s way down to the single digits over time. That wouldn’t be just from a massive payout that looks inevitable, but also from mounting pressures and good enough technology from competition.
Research in motion is a media darling and is seen as a huge success when it comes to technology companies. It will be interesting to see how the company is perceived this time next year.