Samsung is reportedly sniffing around BlackBerry, and may have even made an offer to buy the Ontario, Canadian company for US$7.5 billion. According to Reuters, Samsung offered some $13.35 to $15.49 per share to buy BlackBerry, but was rebuffed.
The Future?
Reuters said that executives from both companies met to discuss a buyout, but BlackBerry officially denied it. In a statement, the company said:
BlackBerry 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.
Samsung was once the darling golden child of the Android world, a company whose offerings were destroying Apple's iPhone empire with its large screens and cheap entry-level devices. BlackBerry was the company that brought mobile email to the business world, but failed to adapt to the challenge of that very same iPhone.
Today, Apple continues to make more money than all of the other mobile companies, while Samsung's dreams of empire crumble in the dust of its one-trick large screen smartphone pony. BlackBerry, on the other hand, has gone back to basics with a focus on the corporate world, and that, according to Reuters, is what Samsung is interested in.
Samsung has enjoyed little success in the corporate world outside of South Korea, but buying BlackBerry brings insta-corporate presence. BlackBerry also owns its own operating system, something Samsung has been desperate to claim on its own resume.
Which brings us back to BlackBerry itself. The company's board of directors have apparently been rejecting any number of offers from would-be suitors, including the Samsung bid. BlackBerry's leadership believes it is on the right track, and that offers of even the 38 percent to 60 percent offered by Samsung undervalue BlackBerry's future.
Shares of BlackBerry jumped on the report, ending Wednesday sharply higher at $12.595 per share, up $2.885 (+29.71 percent), on very heavy volume of 83.5 million shares trading hands.
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