BlackBerry is refuting a news report that Smartphone giant Samsung is in talks to buy the Canadian tech company.
According to a Reuters report published earlier Wednesday, executives from the South Korea-based Samsung met with BlackBerry last week to discuss the potential transaction, worth as much as $7.5 billion.
But in a brief statement released Wednesday evening, BlackBerry denied the claim the company was in purchasing talks with Samsung.
“BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry,” the statement said. “BlackBerry’s policy is not to comment on rumors or speculation.”
Amid news of a possible buyout, the company’s stocks from soared nearly 30 per cent Wednesday. On the TSX, shares closed at $15. 02 -- an increase of $3.42. In New York, shares closed at US$12.60, an increase of $2.89.
However, BlackBerry’s denial that it had engaged in talks with Samsung sent the stocks plunging 15 per cent during after-market trading.
Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry has been struggling in recent years to compete with more popular devices, including Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android. As a result, BlackBerry’s share of the market has diminished to a small fraction of what it was a decade ago.
The company and Samsung recently announced a partnership in which BlackBerry would make its security technology available for the Android operating system this year.
With files from The Canadian Press
