Troubled RIM wants banks to help it win licensing partners

Troubled smartphone maker Research in Motion (RIM) is on the cusp of appointing financial advisors to help it weigh-up its strategic options as the firm faces an uncertain future, according to reports.

Last month, the BlackBerry maker reported calamitous financial results, posting losses of $125m in its latest financial quarter.

At that time, new chief executive Thorsten Heins admitted the company would consider a sale, but insisted that was not its primary focus.

Now Bloomberg reports that RIM is set to appoint one Canadian bank and one global bank to arrange a licensing agreement for its mobile phone software or alternatively make a strategic investment.

The report cited four sources "with knowledge of the matter" for providing details of the move, although it is not explicit whether the sources are from within RIM itself.

V3 contacted the company for confirmation but had received no reply at time of publication.

The revelations come after it emerged over the weekend that former co-chief executive, Jim Balsillie, had quit the company because his plans for a radical reinvention of RIM were vetoed.

Reuters reported that Balsillie had hoped to allow major mobile operators to provide services for non-BlackBerry handsets, routed through RIM's proprietary network.

Balsillie's departure was announced at the same time as RIM delivered its poor financials.

RIM has come under increasing pressure having seen its smartphone market share devoured by rival handset makers, including Apple's iPhone and those based on Google's Android.

The company has also battled with major embarrassments including a string of dud devices, not least of which was its duff PlayBook tablet, as well as a major service outage which left millions of users with email access for several days.