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RIM Hires Law Firm to Restructure Company; May Sell Assets, Seek Joint Ventures, and License Patents

Waterloo's Research In Motion has hired Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. The law firm has been hired to work out a restructuring plan.

The plan could see RIM perform any of the following major moves: sell assets, seek joint ventures, or license patents, according to inside sources cited by Reuters. The most likely option at this point is for RIM to open up its BlackBerry 10 operating system, sources suggest.

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Canadians Loyalty to BlackBerry Vanishes as Android and Apple Gain Marketshare

Canadians have remained largely loyal to Research In Motion despite its recent follies. However, it appears that their allegiance to the Waterloo-based company is fading.

Overall smartphone ownership is up by 13% in the past six months in Canada, according to Ipsos Reid. Now, more than one-third of Canadians own smartphones—up from just one quarter in August 2011.

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Online Video Taking Over Traditional Television, Study Finds

Video is growing and going mobile. Nearly half of Canadians are watching online videos more than they were last year. And 35% of smartphone owners, 56% of tablet owners, and 75% of laptop owners in Canada are regularly watching videos on their portable and mobile devices.

These are some of the more striking statistics found in new research from Ipsos MediaCT and Google. According to their March 2012 Canada Video Study, Canadians watch an average of eight videos per week, with only 13% watching none.

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Kik Founder the Only Tech Entrepreneur to Make Maclean's List of Canadians Under 25 to Watch

Maclean's recently published a list of Canadians under the age of 25 worth keeping an eye on. There were multiple athletes, multiple scientists, and multiple politicians. But only one tech entrepreneuer (and he was technically filed under "business.")

That lone ranger is named Ted Livingston. He's the founder and CEO of Kik Interactive. Based in Waterloo, Kik is a tech startup most famous for its mobile messenger app (and more recently Clik, which turns your smartphone into a television remote).

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A Rolling Stone Gathers Money: Pebble Now at $5 Million Raised from 34,000 People on Kickstarter

This Pebble just keeps on rolling. Built by Waterloo-born startup Allerta, the iOS and Android smartwatch has now raised a staggering $5 million on Kickstarter—by far the most of any Kickstarter campaign ever—with a nearly a month left to raise further funding.

The story gets even better, now that it's been revealed by Bloomberg that venture capitalists turned down investing in Pebble. After raising a modest $375,000 from four angels, Canadian entrepreneur Eric Migicovsky couldn't squeeze a penny out of VCs—even in Silicon Valley.

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Little Games, Big Business: The Mobile Gaming Space Can No Longer be Ignored [Infographic]

Mobile games are proving to be worth a lot more than their deceiving 99¢ price tags. As a recently published infographic titled Little Games, Big Business observes, mobile games are the most popular app category on smartphones. And these days, people spend an average nearly eight hours per month gaming on their iPhones. Plus, the word "mobile" really rings true here: people play mobile games everywhere, from school, to work, to while bed—and even in the bathroom (don't pretend you're the exception!).

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Finance Industry Goes Social, Mobile: Use of Tablets and Social Media by Financial Advisors Doubles

Doctors were among the earliest adopters of tablets, as the capable mobile devices proved a boon for the healthcare profession. Another popular channel for tablets quickly became the education sector, where the mobile devices have proved practical in numerous ways. Now it seems that the finance industry is also finding tablets handy.

According to the third-annual Financial Professionals Social Media Adoption Study conducted by American Century Investments, tablet adoption has doubled among financial advisors in the past year. 22% of financial advisors in the US now use tablets, up from 11% last year.

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RIM Plans to Open a Massive Flagship BlackBerry Store in Dubai

Research In Motion is launching a large flagship BlackBerry store, Bloomberg reports. But not in Waterloo, where it's based, or a major Canadian city, such as Vancouver or Toronto. And definitely not in the US, where RIM's reputation has gone down the toilet.

The flagship store will open in Dubai, where the famous - infamous? - BlackBerry Porsche was unveiled. The store will be up to 1,500 square feet, a pretty huge space considering RIM will be selling basically only two products: BlackBerrys and PlayBooks.

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Oracle Almost Bought RIM (in 2009)

Larry Ellison's company almost acquired Research In Motion, according to a testimony in court. The CEO revealed the fact while testifying in court against Google - but the big-game acquisition was actually considered way back in 2009, when RIM was closer to its peak.

In 2009, RIM's stock hovered between $45 and $90, much lower than its 2008 peak of $140. At $45, it's rock-bottom recession price, RIM had a market cap of roughly $21 billion, and seemed like a huge deal compared to one year prior, when the company was valued at over $80 billion.

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And the winner of a free Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone from Techvibes is...

Over the weekend, we hosted a giveaway. The prize? A shiny cyan Nokia Lumia 800, one of the premier new Windows phones, valued at more than $500. And after well over 300 entries, we're happy to announce the lucky winner. By random draw, the Nokia Lumia 800 goes to...

Jason Lum, a third-year accounting student at UBC's Sauder School of Business. Congratulations, Jason! Look for an email from us in the coming week on how to collect your prize.