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Samsung In Talks To Acquire Troubled BlackBerry For $7.5 Billion

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the circle-of-business dept.

MojoKid writes Shares of BlackBerry (BBRY) were up nearly thirty percent as the closing bell sounded this afternoon. What could possibly be behind this sudden spike in interest in shares of a smartphone company whose glory days faded years ago? Well, it turns out that BlackBerry may be ripe for the picking and Samsung is ready to make an offer that John Chen and BlackBerry's board may be reluctant to refuse. According to a report, Samsung is willing to pay roughly $7.5 billion for BlackBerry's assets (including its patent portfolio). Samsung's sudden interest to make a deal comes just two months after the two companies entered a strategic partnership to bring BlackBerry's BES12 cross-platform EMM solution to Galaxy smartphones and tablets that feature embedded KNOX technology. At the time, the two companies indicated that they were looking forward to future ventures together.

43 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. Apparently Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Blackberry denies this.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthasharf/2015/01/14/blackberry-surge-reversed-after-company-denies-samsung-acquisition-talks

    1. Re:Apparently Not by HBI · · Score: 4, Funny

      The BlackBerry resistance to being bought out deserves a good Downfall video parody. Seriously. They're about as close to death as Hitler was in the Chancellery bunker.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    2. Re:Apparently Not by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Before Blackberry throws the offer out the door, they should ponder Yahoo's tossing of Microsoft's offer back in Redmond's face a few years ago, and how it has done nothing to stem the decline?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    3. Re:Apparently Not by Curtman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "They typically don't comment. Denying something that is true is a great way to get sued by shareholders."

      I don't know about that. They denied that they would make an Android or iPhone BBM app for the entire time they would have been developing them.

      I am most curious about what Samsung would do with QNX if it was to acquire it. QNX is something that should not be allowed to die. Samsung could afford to do this deal, and release QNX as opensource. It's of no particular use to them unless they want to ditch Tizen and Android.

    4. Re: Apparently Not by zaphirplane · · Score: 1

      Are you taking the ali baba shares held by yahoo into account

    5. Re:Apparently Not by MouseR · · Score: 1

      Wich is precisely why someone will end up buying it. Or would want to.

      The patent portfolio is non-negligible, the BIM server still profitable and the QNX side or the business (head units in cars) still generate lots of revenus.

      I think it's stupid no one actually tried to snatch them up.

    6. Re:Apparently Not by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Samsung could afford to do this deal, and release QNX as opensource. It's of no particular use to them unless they want to ditch Tizen and Android.

      That's an excellent reason for Samsung not to do the deal. They don't need QNX. It doesn't fit into their core business, they don't need a rtos that big.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:Apparently Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's far more likely that a US company will buy Blackberry in the same context of Burger King buying Tim Hortons. Tax dodge + distribution chain.

      Like, the only player out there that would actually benefit from acquiring Blackberry would be Microsoft. But only of QNX was divested first. If Microsoft bought Blackberry while it owns QNX, we lose one more viable mobile OS. Microsoft has no interest in running anything but Windows on everything.

      Samsung buying Blackberry would accomplish nothing except maybe give Samsung QNX. But Korean management practices will just bloat the hell out of it and it will become unusable, just like their SmartTV products.

      Every mobile phone has had their own in-house OS more or less. Android just made it more attractive for any bozo chinese counterfeiter to to try and pass off something as the real deal. Samsung is in a race to the bottom with LG for smartphones and smartTV's. Nobody seems to want to learn from Nokia or Ericsson. You sell only three devices per market:
      a) A basic model
      b) A feature model
      and
      c) A Fully loaded model.

      Car dealerships have known this for decades. Most people will buy the Basic or Feature model, but only the richest people buy the fully loaded model because it's a frivolous status expenditure. I know I only need a Honda Civic, but what I want is a Toyota Prius. My parents however are old and want a large American car (and their also overweight.)

      This is like going. "I know I only need a Nokia dumb-phone, but everyone is selling Android at a loss, but what I want (and would actually use) is an iPhone"

      You make most of your money on that middle tier model. The high end model you don't make much money on, but you make up for it in service costs, while the basic model you make most of your money in quantity, knowing fully damn well that few will ever be serviced there.

      Like I can get a 30$ phone plan, as long as I don't need data or texting. The first plan available with data is 80$ fucking dollars a month and it's the only plan you can use on an iPhone.

    8. Re:Apparently Not by Rigel47 · · Score: 1

      You may well just be a troll (your sig indicates such) but you're without a clue. BlackBerry is "close to death" with $3 billion in cash in the bank and positive cash flow in the last quarter? Yeah, revenue is taking a hit as Chen said it would but the guy is calmly executing on his plan.

      Have you even tried a new BB10 phone? If you're more interested in productivity than Angry Birds it is the best phone out there bar none.

    9. Re:Apparently Not by HBI · · Score: 1

      And you, dear sir, are purely astroturf. Doesn't play well here. The BB is dead as a doornail. Even in its last stronghold, the USG, it's being discarded at the speed of government. Slow, but sure.

      --
      HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    10. Re:Apparently Not by nblender · · Score: 1

      I don't have a lot of data but I occasionally do QNX work and the companies I know who are using QNX are just using it in their legacy products. Their new products are being developed on Linux. If that's any sort of indication of the general trend, then QNX is also in a downward spiral.

  2. This has been denied by Blackberry by Black+Mage+Balthazar · · Score: 5, Informative

    Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

    1. Re:This has been denied by Blackberry by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      Non-denial denial. It's not a "purchase", it's a "merger"

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:This has been denied by Blackberry by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

      The buying of troubled businesses is one area where rumours are more reliable than the official press releases.

  3. an offer that cannot be refused by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    blackberry buyout or bankruptcy

  4. Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by kenj123 · · Score: 2

    maybe Samsung will get blueprints to a decent keyboard. I can't believe how all the handset makers dropped the built in keyboards. I've tired some of the 3rd party keyboards and they are crap. the two I tired didn't even have the f and j keys marked. I marked them my self with some epoxy. just as I got used to them, they batteries died and they wouldn't recharge. I'm not particularly happy with blue tooth either, too slow. an addon keyboard that plugs physically into the phone would make me very happy.

    1. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      Most people don't care about keyboards these days because then you wind up either with a tiny screen (compared to today's typical slate phones with 4.5"-6" screens), or a much larger (thicker) phone with a clunky slide-out keyboard module that eventually breaks. Most people are happy with on-screen keyboards, and they're much cheaper and easier to manufacture, so that's where everything went. No one wants to pay a huge premium for a special-model phone just for a keyboard.

      An add-on keyboard isn't a bad idea though. But that's probably going to be rather inconvenient, trying to somehow prop up your phone so you can see it while holding the (BB-sized) keyboard in your hands, and having to fiddle with plugging a keyboard in. A small number of people would probably like this though, so they can use the keyboard when they want to and don't have to carry around a whole notebook computer. Or maybe someone could make a case that clips onto the phone and includes a keyboard plus a plug which plugs into the phone port. That way, if the keyboard breaks, you can replace it without replacing the phone.

    2. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      The previous poster thinks that Bluetooth is too slow. What do you think of this?

    3. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I don't know what the person you were talking to thinks of that idea, but I think it's bullshit. Modern bluetooth is far from slow, and even old bluetooth was fine for keyboards and any non-gaming use of mice.

      Personally, I use AnySoftKeyboard with the SSH layout on my Android devices for doing Unixy things. You get control and tab keys, which solves most of the problems with soft keyboards. If I really need real keys, I have other machines for that.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by kenj123 · · Score: 1

      I'm OP, I have a iphone 4 now, went through 2, 3rd party bluetooth keyboards for it. with both I could type several chars before they showed up on screen and even after it did there was noticeable lag between keypress and char showing up on screen. my previous phone was a Kyocera rise. it has an excellent form factor for me but the browsers just crashed too often or didn't render pages properly. my brother had the mytouch slide and cried when it broke because he new he couldn't get a keyboard phone replacement from his carrier.

    5. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by kenj123 · · Score: 1

      look at the comment sections for the 3rd party keyboards for iphones. there are a lot of ex blackberry owners frantically looking for a decent keyboard for an iphone. doesn't help that the form factor of the iphone keeps changing and the keyboard selection changes for each one. I ride the ny subway quite a bit and I see younger kids on sidekicks doing 80 words a minute. I'm jealous, my problem is I can't find a carrier that has a plan cheap enough for me.

    6. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Maybe the iPhone just sucks with non-Apple bluetooth accessories? Dunno, I've never tried BT keyboards before.

      As for the Kyocera, did you try installing Firefox on it? My crappy old HTC's browser sucks too, with constant crashing, but then I installed Firefox and it works great. With Android, you're not stuck with the browser that came on the phone.

    7. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      I'm jealous, my problem is I can't find a carrier that has a plan cheap enough for me.

      This is the USA: ALL plans are horrifically expensive. That's what we get for having a cartel and not having any decent government regulation.

    8. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      You mean that company that's about to go bankrupt, and is in talks with Samsung to be acquired? You know what happens when a company is acquired, right? Their products are usually quickly eliminated in favor of the parent company's, as the whole purpose for acquisition is to eliminate competition and perhaps acquire some technical talent, rather than product lines.

      Buying into a Blackberry now would be sheer idiocy, as it's not going to be supported.

    9. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by kenj123 · · Score: 1

      apple doesn't make a phone keyboard that I know of. I just went trough amazon and ebay and tried to find the better rated ones that fit my phone. I tried firefox and some other browsers. I noticed that some of the markup problems were the same on all of the browsers. I suspect they rely some common core features.

    10. Re:Samsung phone with a decent keyboard? by kenj123 · · Score: 1

      I'm using virgin mobile that uses sprint (I think). I'm in a major metro area so I get pretty good reception. for 30$ per month I have a unlimited data and 300 minutes talk. I had to pay $200 for my iphone 4. hope to get 2years or more from it.

  5. Acronym Soup by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Funny

    a strategic partnership to bring BlackBerry's BES12 cross-platform EMM solution to Galaxy smartphones and tablets that feature embedded KNOX technology.

    Does this convey any actual meaning to anyone?

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    1. Re:Acronym Soup by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 2

      Just ask Google to translate it.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:Acronym Soup by zlives · · Score: 1

      KNOX is samsung enterprise security protocols that would enable BES12 MDM to manage the device and provide secure enterprise access to apps via perapp vpn like connectivity. basically BB balance for samsung.

    3. Re:Acronym Soup by slaker · · Score: 2

      They wanna roll Blackberry's well-regarded but proprietary secure messaging system into Samsung's home-grown mobile security application. Duh.

      --
      -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
    4. Re:Acronym Soup by guruevi · · Score: 2

      Well-regarded? By whom? They're the Oprah of private key management, even India got them. Sure some enterprises used them (because they put the word enterprise in their product name and made it look very exclusive) but besides some large idiots most smart people ignored them.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    5. Re:Acronym Soup by Solandri · · Score: 1

      Reminds me of the backronym someone came up with for the old PCMCIA slots on laptops. People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms.

    6. Re:Acronym Soup by uolamer · · Score: 1

      Pretty sure KNOX is what is stopping me from replacing the bootloader on my Galaxy S4 (Verizon) like I normally would with a custom ROM. I have to use SafeStrap and not modify their bootloader. I still have my custom rom, it was just more annoying..

      --
      s/©//g
  6. Re:Good luck with that Samsung. Canada will kibosh by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I doubt Canada will bless the deal. The canadaian government is well known in protecting indigenous companies, Blackberry being one of them. That's why, it meddled in NorTel's affairs till the company went bankrupt.

    I wish Samsung all the best.

    Nortel went bankrupt because they were stupid - hiring thousands of people without even knowing where they were going to put them, never mind what job they would be doing. They figured the bubble would never end ... same as the housing bubble.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  7. Re:Good luck with that Samsung. Canada will kibosh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Given that the number of remaining (since the Free Trade Agreement with the USA) indigenous Canadian companies that are:

    1) much more than mom & pop operations
    2) haven't been bought out by a foreign company, and
    3) don't simple rape and pillage raw resources for export

    can, I think, be counted on the fingers of one hand (with fingers to spare) I'd say the Canadian Government has done a rather poor job protecting them. Let's see ... we have Bombardier, and ... hmm ... I'd have to think for a while ...

  8. Interesting, despite protestations to the contrary by rmdingler · · Score: 2, Insightful
    They have some market share in their diversification into the IOT, and 44,000 patents is what they reportedly hold...

    So, $7.5 billion is a bargain if Samsung is willing to become entrenched in a long series of patent litigation cases.

    Intended.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  9. Google by tgetzoya · · Score: 1

    With all those patents and that price tag, why doesn't Google buy them and merge that stuff into Android?

  10. Re:Good luck with that Samsung. Canada will kibosh by umdesch4 · · Score: 1

    Why was this modded troll. It's 100% true, and anybody who thinks it isn't either doesn't live here in Canada, or really has no clue.

  11. Re:Good luck with that Samsung. Canada will kibosh by newbie_fantod · · Score: 2

    Nortel also went bankrupt because China based hackers had the free run of all of their computers for a decade. That's a lot of R&D to give away.

  12. Probably Hot Air by conquistadorst · · Score: 1

    I've been watching Blackberry for over a year and these buyout rumors always, always, always get started when Blackberry's stock is at its worst and falling rapidly. This is one of the most consistently-wildly-volatile stocks I've ever watched. The short interest on this is ridiculous while at the same time you have zealous firm believers who are awaiting the messiah's return. Then you have a CEO with a good record of turnarounds but who is so adamant about no buyouts. Then you have their GAAP vs. non-GAAP results. It's just an incredible perfect storm of what-ifs and maybes. It's also quite a dangerous stock to follow where anyone can easily be crushed by a bad wave. But if you're the one peddling these rumors and controlling the timing, well by golly Baal-Hamon be praised, there's money to be made and that special someone is making an absolute killing...

  13. They are not in trouble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    total cash - total debt = billions

    Supposed to start turning a profit. Probably turning FCF positive.

    Your headline is misleading.

  14. Re:BB10 OS by Rigel47 · · Score: 1

    Something's up with your phone.. I have a z10 as well and it runs like butter.

  15. BES by clicker666 · · Score: 2

    One thing they did right was BES. The amount of control I had over my user's phones was immense and I always got an email on my BB before my desktop. (Not minutes, but definitely two or three seconds). I still have users begging me to give them Blackberry's with keyboards. But after giving the Director of the company one I canned them all outright. The version 10 OS was just so awful compared to the simplicity of the old one.