BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY) rose the most in more than a decade after Reuters reported that Samsung Electronics Co. recently proposed acquiring the Canadian company for as much as $7.5 billion.
Samsung approached Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry with an initial offer price of $13.35 to $15.49 a share, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter and documents. That’s at least a 37 percent premium to BlackBerry’s closing price yesterday.
BlackBerry rose 30 percent to $12.60 at the close in
New York.
Adam Yates, a U.S. spokeswoman for South Korea-based Samsung, declined to comment. Representatives for BlackBerry didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Just two months ago, BlackBerry announced it was teaming up with Samsung, one of its biggest rivals in the growing mobile device management market, for a management-services partnership. It marked the first time the competitors have worked together on a major product.
That partnership was one piece of Chief Executive Officer John Chen’s efforts to focus BlackBerry on business users as he aims to reach sustainable profit and revenue growth in the fiscal year that ends 2016. He already reached a milestone of generating cash again in the most recently reported quarter.
BlackBerry shares rose 48 percent in 2014 as Chen’s turnaround strategy started to take hold. They are still well below the company’s heydays when the stock closed above $147 in 2008 before BlackBerry’s share of the smartphone market dwindled.
Samsung’s Knox system, which offers a suite of secure work applications, can now run on BlackBerry’s new server, known as BES12. The partnership competes with an alliance between International Business Machines Corp. and Apple Inc.
One question is whether the Canadian government would approve the sale of BlackBerry to a foreign company. Canada reviews foreign takeovers valued at more than C$354 million ($296 million) to determine if the deal represents a “net benefit” to the country. The government can also review deals based on national security considerations.
Jake Enwright, a spokesman for Canadian Industry Minister
James Moore in Ottawa, said he can’t comment on “speculation and rumors.”
Chen took over in late 2013 after a plan collapsed to take the smartphone maker private. Since then, Chen has focused on providing software and security for governments and corporations, while also introducing new phones that cater to business users, like the Passport and the Classic.
