The Canadian handset maker has vehemently denied that it has received an offer of US$7.5 billion.
Last week, headlines were ablaze with reports that BlackBerry Ltd. had received a takeover offer from Samsung Electronics Co., worth an estimated US$7.5 billion, sending the stock price for the Canadian technology company skyward.
However, since that time, the company has flat-out denied that it was in talks with Samsung for that purpose.
This contradiction to the original claims that BlackBerry could potentially be taken over by Samsung brought the stock prices right back down again in after-hours trading. A report from Reuters had revealed that Samsung had recently reached out to BlackBerry for the purpose of purchasing it outright for upwards of US$7.5 billion, for the purpose of taking hold of that company’s considerable portfolio of patents.
The report from Reuters cited an unidentified source who had stated that Samsung had initially approached the company with a price range of between US$13.35 and $15.49 per share. That would represent a 38 percent to 60 percent premium over the trading price that the company had been seeing at the time.
The report said that executives from both BlackBerry and Samsung were working with advisors for a possible transaction.
The Canadian company called the report “groundless” and completely denied that it had held any talks with Samsung with regards to a possible takeover. The statement said that “BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry.” It also added that the policy of the company is not to comment on speculations and rumors and has no intention of releasing any further statements on the matter.
When the talks of takeover first made it into the headlines, the stocks of the company spiked by up to 30 percent in New York. It managed to reach the highest point on the Toronto Stock Exchange that it had seen since early in 2012. However, after the market closed and BlackBerry released its denial statement, the shares rapidly drifted back down again. This is not the first time that this type of rumor has occurred with regards to this company.
