Reuters is reporting that Samsung has approached BlackBerry with a takeover offer for as much as $7.5 billion, which would be about 38 percent more than the stock market says the Canadian company is even worth. Samsung supposedly wants access to BlackBerry patents and also may be trying to up its security game with BlackBerry's sterling mobile security reputation for its Knox platform. Samsung's push, as detailed at CES, may also be a reason that company is interested in BlackBerry, specifically QNX, a platform BlackBerry acquired in 2010 which provides OSes and development tools for IoT manufacturers and the auto industry including Apple's own CarPlay.
Supposedly, the meeting happened last week but no party on either side has confirmed any details. So who knows if this stretches much further than a casual business meeting. What I can only imagine could be a Tim Hortons/Burger King nightmare 2.0 for some Canadians, it does look like the world's collective dream of owning a Tizen-based smartphone with a hardware keyboard may take one small step toward actually happening! [Reuters]
Update: BlackBerry has denied having talks with Samsung in any capacity regarding a purchase of the company. The press states that it won't comment any further on what they describe as "rumors or speculation."