Blackberry stock has jumped almost 30% this morning with a report from Reuters that Samsung Electronics are looking to acquire them. The report says Samsung are most interested in BlackBerry’s patent portfolio, sourcing ‘people familiar with the matter’. The talks are reported to be as advanced as Samsung making initial offers of $13.35 per share, which currently sits at $12.60.
The deal in total is reportedly worth between 6 and 7.5 Billion. Blackberry also has around 60% automotive infotainment segment with their QNX platform which was recently adopted by Ford with SYNC3.
BlackBerry has been cutting staff in light of diminishing device sales in an effort to make the company profitable again. It may be that that efficiency focus has now made them a prime acquisition target. If the patents held by BlackBerry have significant cross-over with Samsung’s device roadmap, it makes sense they acquire the company, rather than continuing to pay royalties per device.
The bump in stock price today looks impressive (and the most promising thing to happen to BlackBerry in a while), especially when we look at the trend in price over the last 5 years.
More information at Reuters.
