BlackBerry’s stock jumped nearly 30 percent today after a Reuters report suggested the Canadian OEM had been approached by Samsung about a potential acquisition.
Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner said that Samsung could be targeting BlackBerry’s secure email server, which includes BlackBerry Mail and Messenger.
“From that perspective it makes sense,” Entner said.
But Entner said that BlackBerry’s current market cap, sitting around $6.8 billion, seems like a little much to pay for a company with a fraction of one percent market share.
According to reports, Samsung discussed paying as much as $7.5 billion for BlackBerry in hopes of gaining access to BlackBerry’s patent portfolio.
BlackBerry late last year was tied to Lenovo in acquisition rumors. In 2013, the company had briefly agreed to be acquired by Fairfax Financial Holdings for $4.7 billion but that deal fell through.
A once formidable presence in the smartphone market, BlackBerry has struggled for years now. Under current CEO John Chen, the company has placed less emphasis on its handsets. Still, the recently released BlackBerry Passport generated a lot of early demand.
In September 2014, BlackBerry reported a $207 million loss for its fiscal second quarter.
BlackBerry stock is up 29.71 percent as of 3:12 p.m. CT.
UPDATE: BlackBerry issued a statement denying any talks with Samsung about a possible acquisition. BlackBerry stock is down more than 16 percent in pre-market trading.
Filed Under: Infrastructure