The idea that a given company merely CONSIDERED buying another company isn’t really the type of item that would ordinarily make the memo. Speculative. But the Wall Street Journal and its favorite source PFWTM (People Familiar With The Matter) say that Nokia and Microsoft have discussed the idea of buying Research In Motion and running it as kind of a joint venture. The current status of said talks remains unclear.

Meanwhile, reports have surfaced that Amazon hired an investment banking firm over the summer to explore the possibility of buying RIM. I’ve seen reports that Amazon decided not to pursue it and I’ve seen reports that RIM rebuffed the offer, preferring to follow its own star-crossed course to repairing its tattered image somehow.

Any of these companies buying up RIM would be interesting since they’re either not in the mobile game (Amazon) or are way behind it (Microsoft and Nokia). But you also have to wonder exactly how much RIM has in the tank. It would be kind of like an NFL team trading for Peyton Manning. He used to be one of the best in the league, a Hall of Famer for sure, but he’s coming off some bad injuries and his body might finally be breaking down.