Canadian phonemaker RIM can be compared to Nokia, which failed to adapt to the market trends in time and consequently got itself in some financial turmoil.  The former however is still in better shape in some regards, and even as the rumor mull churns that it may become an acquisition itself, RIM buys out NewBay for $100 million.

Official details about the acquisition were not revealed, but an unnamed source reportedly familiar with the deal revealed the purchase price.  NewBay provides a cloud service that lets subscribers store and share media and files, which means it will likely reemerge sometime in the future with an offering directly integrated with BlackBerry handsets and the PlayBook.  This is nothing new in the mobile space (Apple’s iCloud, Amazon’s Cloud Drive, Box and many others have all been competing over users for a while now), but timing is not the only decisive factor in this case according to RBC analyst Mike Abramsky :

“RIM is coming later to market than competitive offerings (may take another 6-12 months to be fully integrated) vs. Apple’s iCloud, Amazon’s Cloud Drive and related services, and Google cloud apps. It’s not known yet whether RIM’s offering will match or lag the content and user experience of competitors.”

It’s interesting to note that the NewBay acquisition follows a flood of rumors and speculations about RIM as an acquisition target.  British telco Vodafone has been suggested to be a potential buyer, considering that the UK market is still fond of the BlackBerry.  However, the regulatory concerns, as well as the potential risk, the company could compromise its relationships with other manufacturers are a few of the weighing factors brought up by analysts.

It seems RIM itself has taken this a step further, and is actively searching for buyers. News broke two days ago that the phonemaker may have hired an investment bank to pitch the company, which if true, is no surprise considering the shareholder pressure on RIM’s board to deliver value.