BlackBerry

All of a sudden, the possibility that another company will swoop in and buy BlackBerry is starting to seem very real now that the Canadian smartphone-maker has formed a committee to consider the option. It's hard to say exactly how much another company might pay to snatch up the once-great BlackBerry, but according to the latest projections it won't cost as much per a share as the company's leadership is likely hoping for.

Speaking with AllThingsD, Stuart Jeffrey from Nomura Equity Research predicts that the company could sell for $12 or $13 a share, about $1 to $2 above today's $11 closing price. That's down from earlier reports that pegged the buyout price at at least $14 or $15 per share. That may not seem like a lot, especially considering that BlackBerry's stock was worth $144.56 per share at its height in 2008, but with millions of shares in play each dollar really does make a difference.

While BlackBerry currently develops its own hardware and software, any company considering a buyout would likely dump both sides of the smartphone operation and instead focus on incorporating popular services like BBM into their own devices. The real value, however, may come from BlackBerry's patents, which have been valued at as much as $3 billion, and likely represent the last great batch of mobile patents that will go up for sale for the foreseeable future.