RIM shares (TSE:RIM) rose around five percent on Friday; something Baron's suggested could be attributed to rumours that Samsung is considering a minority investment in RIM.

The goal would be to produce its own phones based on the new BB10 operating system due later this year.

Baron's spoke with Collin Gillis of BGC Partners – who currently has a Sell rating on RIMM stock – and he explained that Android licensees, including Samsung, are increasingly nervous of the ramifications of Google's ongoing acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

The ecosystem

Gillis suggests that RIM's new management - Thorsten Heins became CEO and president of RIM after Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepped down as joint-CEOs in January – might also be keen to court other handset developers with their BB10 OS.

"Obviously new management has been sitting down and saying, maybe we could extend the platform and bring something new into the ecosystem," Gillis says.

But competition from Samsung handsets running BB10 could adversely affect RIM's revenue in the short term.

Whether RIM will consider this a worthwhile hit to take in exchange for the wider distribution of its newest operating system remains to be seen.

Also Samsung is pushing its own bada OS. Still with BlackBerry remaining a very strong brand in parts of South America, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, opening up the OS could make sense both to RIM and companies such as Samsung.

[source: Baron's]