Friday, January 14, 2011

GreenBkk Tech | RIM shares jump after India deal; new phone leaked

RIM shares jump after India deal; new phone leaked

A man with his belongings walks past a closed store selling mobile phones in Kolkata August 12, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Rupak De Chowdhuri

(Reuters) - Shares in Research In Motion jumped as much as 4 percent to near an eight-month high on Thursday morning after it reached a deal with India that appeared to protect its secure corporate email service.

In addition, tech website Boy Genius Report published details of a touch and type smartphone code-named BlackBerry Dakota, which it said boasted near-field communication (NFC) technology, which allows consumers to pay for items by waving the phone against a special terminal.

A picture on the website showed a phone that maintains the style of the company's high-end BlackBerry Bold, with a 2.8 inch touchscreen and RIM's famed physical qwerty keyboard.

RIM declined to comment on the Boy Genius report.

In India, where RIM is fending off government demands it acquiesce to monitoring of communications sent via BlackBerrys, the Canadian company said it had allowed access to its Messenger service but reiterated no changes could be made to allow monitoring of secure corporate emails.

Fred Ketchen, head of equity trading at ScotiaMcLeod, said he suspected there may be more behind the share price rise than just the settlement in India.

"I think this is a little overdone, just based upon preliminary ideas of how it may get solved, so I think there's got to be something else hanging around," Ketchen said.

RIM's share price has jumped around 50 percent since late August, buoyed by optimism over its PlayBook tablet, which is powered by a Texas Instruments dual-core processor and should launch in March.

The shares later pared gains and were 2.9 percent higher at $64.49 on Nasdaq and at C$65.39 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp and Claire Sibonney)

Credit: Reuters (www.reuters.com)


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