{"id":82505,"date":"2015-01-15T08:09:24","date_gmt":"2015-01-15T08:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=82505"},"modified":"2015-01-14T22:27:38","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T22:27:38","slug":"blackberrys-stock-surged-nearly-30-report-samsung-takeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/01\/blackberrys-stock-surged-nearly-30-report-samsung-takeover\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackBerry’s stock surged nearly 30% on report of Samsung takeover"},"content":{"rendered":"
BlackBerry’s stock price jumped nearly 30% in late trading Wednesday after Reuters reported that Samsung approached the tech company with an offer to buy it for as much as $7.5 billion.<\/p>\n
The Reuters report, based on “a person familiar with the matter,” said Samsung was interested in BlackBerry’s patent portfolio. Reps from both companies could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
Before Reuters’ article was published, Samsung proposed buying BlackBerry for between $13.35 and $15.49 per share, which was a premium of 38% to 60% over BlackBerry’s share price. That price translates to $6 billion to $7.5 billion.<\/p>\n
Previous estimates for the worth of BlackBerry’s patents have ranged from $200 million to $5 billion.<\/p>\n
If the report proves to be true, it will be a testimony to Sybase veteran John Chen’s turnaround effort at the company, which many had written off a year ago.<\/p>\n
Since Chen joined in November 2013 as CEO, he has laid off 40% of the company’s workforce and launched the Passport, a 3.6-inch model with a square display.<\/p>\n
Still, the company’s share of the smartphone market \u2014 which was as high as 47% in 2010 \u2014 is now south of 1%, according to the International Data Corporation.<\/p>\n
Chen has focused on carving out a niche in the market for business professionals who might have an iPhone for their personal life, but use a BlackBerry for work.<\/p>\n
Chen’s efforts have made a modest BlackBerry comeback likely, but the company’s viability continues to be determined by its patents.<\/p>\n
In today’s litigation-mad tech industry, patents are increasingly important, as evidenced by Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola in 2011.<\/p>\n
Google sold Motorola to Lenovo last January, but retained the lion’s share of Motorola’s patents.<\/p>\n