The Internet is a wonderful place, with rumours abound. It doesn’t take much to cause a stir and Reuters certainly did that earlier this evening when they published an article alleging that Samsung were reportedly in talks to purchase BlackBerry.
In our normal fashion, we held back on publishing this as it did not fit in with our known current knowledge of BlackBerry.
According to Reuters Samsung were making a play for BlackBerry patents and were willing to pay up to $7.5 billion. Of course, the source was an unnamed “person familiar with the matter”.
Samsung recently approached BlackBerry about buying the smartphone maker for as much as $7.5 billion in a play for its patent portfolio, according to a person familiar with the matter and documents seen by Reuters.
South Korea’s Samsung proposed an initial price range of $13.35 to $15.49 per share, representing a premium of 38 percent to 60 percent over BlackBerry’s current trading price, the source said.
Executives from the two companies, which are working with advisers, met last week to discuss a potential transaction, the source said, asking not to be identified because the conversations are private.
In a matter of hours BlackBerry has issued the following response denying reported discussions with Samsung:
BlackBerry Limited is aware of certain press reports published today with respect to a possible offer by Samsung to purchase BlackBerry. BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry. BlackBerry’s policy is not to comment on rumors or speculation, and accordingly it does not intend to comment further.
News of the alleged meeting sent Blackberry shares up nearly 30 percent, trading at $29.71 per share in New York.
