RIM Value Gains More Than $350M Despite Lack Of News

Shares of BlackBerry developer Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) soared as much as 6.5 percent Thursday, despite any corporate news. Analysts suggested the company might cut carrier fees to bolster sales through wireless providers.

The speculation sent the value of the company up as much as $350 million.

By the close of trading, shares of the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker had fallen back slightly to $7.69, up 34 cents or 3.9 percent, valuing the company at only $3.95 billion, about 74 percent below its value a year ago. During the day, shares rose as high as $7.83.

Since the company announced last week its first-quarter loss of $518 million, or 99 cents a share, as well as postponements of shipping the anticipated BlackBerry 10 to mid-2013, analysts have speculated the company could be broken up or sold.

Activist investor Victor Alboini, whose Toronto-based Jaguar Financial owns slightly less than 5 percent of the stock, said he believed the company won't exist in its current state within 12 months. Alboini wasn't availabe for comment Thursday.

In an interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Tuesday, CEO Thorsten Heins, 54, protested the company was not ignoring the world out there, nor is it in a death spiral.

RIM's annual meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday at company headquarters. Alboini, for one, said he probably won't attend because the affair is too formal.