Research In Motion is selling NewBay to Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR) for about half of what it paid for the company 14 months ago. Synchronoss will buy the provider of cloud-based content for $55.5 million. RIM bought NewBay for an estimated $100 million in October 2011, before the troubled smartphone maker brought in Thorstein Heins as its new CEO.
Despite its well-documented decline, RIM has remained debt-free and has almost $2 billion in cash on hand. So it doesn’t appear to be unloading NewBay in a desperate attempt to raise cash, although its bills are mounting. In addition to a hefty marketing budget associated with the upcoming launch of BlackBerry 10, RIM now has to pay royalties to Nokia for use of the Finnish company’s standards essential patents related to Wi-Fi.
RIM and Nokia settled their patent dispute on Dec. 21, and the first payment due from RIM is about $65 million. Unlike RIM, Nokia has a significant debt load and is spending through its cash, so the company is trying to monetize its substantial patent portfolio in hopes that royalties can sustain operations while it waits for its Windows smartphones to take off.
Meanwhile RIM is banking on BlackBerry 10, slated for release at the end of January. The latest leaks suggest that screen sharing and video chat will both be part of the new device’s proprietary operating system.
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