Major investor pressures RIM to seek buyer or sell intellectual property

RIM is being advised by a major investor to consider putting itself up for acquisition or sell its intellectual property to boost shareholder returns, according to Bloomberg.

The report claims that investment group Jaguar Financial said RIM's board of directors has a responsibility to consider all options, including putting the company up for sale, in case its plan to secure a share of the tablet market using the QNX platform does not succeed.

The move follows a fall in the company's share value and criticism it is not doing enough to fight competition in the smartphone market from Apple's iPhone and handsets based on Google's Android operating system.

Shareholders confronted RIM chiefs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis at the company's annual general meeting in July, accusing them of "letting Apple and Android eat your lunch".

However, RIM is currently seeing strong sales of its BlackBerry smartphones, and has recently introduced several new models.