Shares of BlackBerry soared Wednesday after a news report that South Korea’s Samsung has approached the smartphone maker with a takeover proposal.
Shares jumped 32 per cent on the news, the largest price increase in more than a decade, Bloomberg estimates. The company was trading at just less than $13 U.S. a share as of market close Wednesday.
UPDATE: BlackBerry has issued a statement denying "certain press reports" the company is in talks with Samsung.
According to a report at Reuters, Samsung is willing to fork over as much as $7.5 billion U.S. for the struggling Waterloo, Ont.-based smartphone maker.
That’s some 37 per cent more than the company's valuation as of Tuesday evening.
Rumours of takeover offers have swirled around BlackBerry for the past several years, as the company has struggled with falling share prices and shrinking market share.
A similar rumour about Samsung being interested in BlackBerry circulated in January of 2012, before being shot down, as did a rumour about Microsoft wanting the smartphone maker.
Chinese computer maker Lenovo on several occasions has been named as a potential suitor for BlackBerry, though Canada’s federal government has expressed concerns about national security should a Chinese company buy BlackBerry.
Various members of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet have suggested over the years they would prefer a Canadian buyer for the company.
BlackBerry has been reportedly lobbying Ottawa to change foreign takeover rules for tech firms.
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