• The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, August 19, 2010 12:47 PM

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion is shopping for a mobile ad network, sources tell The Wall Street Journal, which attributes the move to "pressure in the increasingly competitive wireless market." According to sources, the device maker has held talks with Baltimore-based mobile ad network Millennial Media about a potential acquisition, though the discussions stalled over disagreements regarding the value of Millennial, which serves advertisements on its own network of mobile Web sites.

The Journal suggests that Millennial has been emboldened by the recent sale prices fetched by rivals AdMob and Quattro Wireless, and was asking for between $400 million to $500 million. Driving RIM is growing pressure to respond to Google and Apple, which purchased AdMob and Quattro, and "are making strong inroads in the wireless computing industry," notes The Journal. Late last year, Google announced an agreement to buy AdMob for $750 million, while in January of 2010 Apple announced that it acquired Quattro Wireless for an undisclosed sum.

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