Korea’s Samsung Electronics is not buying Canada’s BlackBerry, the two companies said overnight, denying a Reuters report that an acquisition was on the cards.
The newswire quoted an unnamed source as saying that Samsung had recently offered to buy BlackBerry for as much as US$7,5bn, mainly to get access to its patent portfolio as it fights rival Apple in the corporate market. Reuters claimed to have seen documents in this regard.
Samsung proposed an initial price range of $13,35 to $15,49/share, a premium of up to 60% over BlackBerry’s current trading price, the report said.
The news sent BlackBerry’s share price up by nearly 30% by the close in New York on Wednesday night.
BlackBerry issued a statement denying the Reuters report.
“BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry,” it said.
“BlackBerry’s policy is not to comment on rumours or speculation, and accordingly it does not intend to comment further.” — © 2015 NewsCentral Media