• The Wall Street Journal, Sunday, August 22, 2010 11:03 PM

Under pressure in the increasingly competitive wireless market, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. is shopping for a mobile advertising network, say sources, reports The Wall Street Journal. The Canadian device maker has held talks with Baltimore-based mobile ad network Millennial Media about a potential acquisition. But the talks have stalled over disagreements regarding the value of Millennial, which serves advertisements on its own network of mobile Web sites. It also brokers ad sales to a group of other mobile ad networks.

Encouraged by the recent sale prices fetched by rivals AdMob and Quattro Wireless, Millennial has asked for between $400 million to $500 million, these people said. RIM has been unwilling to pay such a price, these people added. RIM is under a growing amount of pressure to respond to Google Inc. and Apple Inc., which purchased AdMob and Quattro, and are making strong inroads in the wireless computing industry.

But ITProPortal says RIM may baulk at the price tag and instead focus on smaller rivals such as Greystripe or JumpTap. As recently as early August, Millennial Media's President and CEO said in an interview that the company would prefer to make an IPO rather than being acquired by another company.

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »