According to Canadian merchant bank, Jaguar Financial Corps, which is a shareholder in RIM, the smartphone company should consider selling itself or its patents in order to improve investor returns and to combat its falling stock price.

It dropped almost 50 percent during 2011.  

In an interview with Bloomberg, Jaguar CEO Vic Alboini suggested RIM should form a committee of four or five independent directors to evaluate the possibility of selling.

Though Alboini declined to reveal the size of Jaguar’s stake in RIM, he said his proposal carries with it the support of several shareholders who collectively hold under 5 percent of the company’s shares.

G-RIM prospects

The move comes on the heels of months of bad news for the company, which recently announced it was laying off up to 2,000 staff, and is suffering longterm pressure in terms of falling market share compared to rivals such as Apple and Google. 

RIM also bowed to investor pressure in July this year, agreeing to evaluate its co-CEO management structure.

Jaguar, which invests in undervalued small capitalisation companies, is used to getting its way too: in 2009 it dissuaded Hudbay Minerals from following through on a $534 million takeover of Lundin Mining Corp by forming a shareholder alliance.

"You cannot put all your eggs in one basket," Albioni said, referring to the 2012 release of RIM's new QNX smartphones.

"The board should be saying, 'What if these products don't pan out?' You don’t want RIM to turn into another Nortel."

[source: Bloomberg]