bloggingbuyouts

Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) -- volatility up prior to unconfirmed Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) buyout chatter. RIMM is recently trading up $1.33 cents to $83.11 on unconfirmed speculation MSFT is considering the purchase of RIMM on rumor of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) introducing GPhone. RIMM has a market cap of $45 billion. MSFT has a market cap of $267 billion. RIMM is expected to report EPS on October 4. RIMM September option implied volatility of 47 is above its 26-week average of 42 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risk.

Tellabs Inc. (NASDAQ: TLAB) -- volatility elevated into renewed report of Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) interest in TLAB assets . TLAB, a designer and marketer of equipment to providers of telecommunications services, is recently up $0.45 to $10.70. Light Reading reported NT has emerged as the most recent suitor for TLAB. Nortel, Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) have been frequently mentioned as possible buyers of TLAB over the last five years. TLAB over all option implied volatility of 42 is above its 26-week average of 37 according to Track Data, indicating larger price risk.

Daily M&A update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) CEO Ed Zander just can't get a break. Only months after activist investor Carl Icahn lost his bid to become perched on Motorola's board of directors and start his inside campaign to remove Zander, activist investor Eric Jackson summoned 20 fellow Motorola shareholders using Internet tools like blogs and online videos to commit their collective 47,000-share-strong voice in an effort to can Zander and four of 10 active Motorola board members.

Is the age of the billionaire activist investor over? Not quite. But smaller investors are using real-time communication tools via the Internet to build a solid and significant following in their quest to push for change at companies where share prices have remained stagnant or gone down. Motorola is one such company, and one that is being beat up by competitors Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Samsung and LG right now. It needs a cellphone hit like the RAZR to ignite sales and excite customers again, but its product lineup and roadmap looks quite staid next to the competition, save for the RAZR 2.

Jackson is no novice at this game, as he took six months to wage a replacement campaign against former Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel, and ended with 100 YHOO shareholders holding a collective two million shares. Jackson claims that the shareholders he reaches out to in these grassroots campaigns are legit owners with no material misrepresentation. Not bad for the small investor, eh?

Over the past few months, there has been a ton of takeover talk about Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM). The company is certainly attractive. It has lots of cash and a strong global footprint. Today there was a report in Unstrung that says a deal could be wrapped up this week.

The buyers may actually be two major private equity firms: Texas Pacific Group and Silver Lake Partners. Of course, Palm would be a nice fit for a strategic party like Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) or Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK). In fact, a deal with Motorola may actually quell some of the ardor of its big shareholder, Carl Icahn.

To add even more drama, Palm is going to report its earnings on the 22nd. Unstrung says the offer for Palm is likely to be above $20. And, given all the suitors, I think a high price is likely. Currently, Palm is trading at $19.01.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.