Reuters: Global Markets: BlackBerry shares rise on interest from strategic buyers

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BlackBerry shares rise on interest from strategic buyers Oct 7th 2013, 13:14 Tweet Share this Email Print Reprints Related Topics Tech » Hot Stocks » Asian Markets » Media » A Blackberry smartphone is displayed in this August 12, 2010 illustrative photo taken in Hong Kong. Credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip TORONTO | Mon Oct 7, 2013 9:14am EDT TORONTO (Reuters) - Shares of BlackBerry Ltd rose more than 4 percent in trading before the bell on Monday, following news of interest from strategic buyers in the embattled smartphone company and an analyst upgrade on the company's stock. Shares in the company rose above the $8 mark after a Reuters report on Friday that the Waterloo, Ontario-based company is in talks with Cisco Systems, Google Inc and SAP about selling them all or parts of itself. The potential interest from strategic buyers, along with the recent decline in BlackBerry's share price prompted Macquarie analyst Kevin Smithen to upgrade his rating on BlackBerry to "neutral" from "underperform." Smithen, in a note to clients on Monday, said he believes the recent decline in the company's share price to well below Fairfax Financial Holdings' stalking horse bid price of $9, "has finally attracted enough interest from the global tech titans who may take a 'punt' on enterprise mobility." Reuters also reported that BlackBerry is seeking preliminary expressions of interest from potential strategic buyers, which also include Intel Corp and Asian companies LG and Samsung, by early this week. Smithen advised clients to hold on to the stock until a deal is concluded, noting that the company's intellectual property, its secure network and its service contracts, could be of value to rivals and software companies that have so far struggled to break into enterprise mobility market. "We believe a $6 to $9 sale price range by year end to perhaps a consortium of buyers is the most likely outcome," he said. Shares in BlackBerry, which closed on the Nasdaq at $7.69 on Friday, were trading at $8.05 before the bell on Monday. (Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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