Hockey team Pittsburgh Penguins is sold to the Blackberry owner, Canadian enterpreneur Jim Balsillie.

Balsillie, owner of the BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion, signed an agreement to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins for $175 million, according to a report from KDKA TV in Pittsburgh.

Though RIM is based in Waterloo, Ontario, he reportedly plans for the team to remain in Pittsburgh.

"With new owners and with a new building, my belief is that the future of the Penguins in Pittsburgh is both warm and bright. We don't want to see that team move," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Current Penguins owner Mario Lemieux and his partners were first approached about selling the team in January.

Lemieux made it clear that any new owner would have to agree to keep the team in Pittsburgh.

Lemieux, the first former player to be a majority owner of his old team, saved the team from bankruptcy in 1999.

BlackBerry, a wireless handheld device, was also introduced in 1999.

In 2003, Blackberry has been slapped with patent infringement case against RIM, manufacturer of the popular mobile device. Another patent infringement case has been opened in 2005, when a federal judge invalidated a $450 million settlement between RIM and the Arlington, Va., patent holding company.

Since then, Blackberry sales has slowed down as many companies has switched from Blackberries to newer smart phones due to Blackberry's problems with connectivity and software issues.



________________

SOURCE: files from The Associated Press, Internet Week were used in this report.