Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.
What: Shares of BlackBerry Ltd (BB -1.31%) jumped as much as 11.9% during Thursday's trading amid renewed reports of acquisition interest from Samsung (NASDAQOTH: SSNLF).
So what: Last week, BlackBerry stock skyrocketed nearly 30% after Reuters first reported Samsung's interest, only to plunge the following day after both companies denied a deal was in the works. Even so, Reuters stood by its report, which cited a source familiar with the situation as well as documents seen by the news outlet.
This time, Canada's Financial Post claims to have obtained a document prepared by investment bank Evercore Partners and "corroborated by a source with knowledge of the plan." The document, FP says, contains a "detailed roadmap in more than 40 pages of how various takeover strategies might play out." It also outlines the benefits of BlackBerry's vast patent portfolio, and how Samsung might approach spinning off the parts of BlackBerry it doesn't need. The report also suggests working to gain the support of major BlackBerry shareholder Prem Watsa for such a deal, and takes into account the average price other major investors paid for their shares.
Now what: Though I later suggested Samsung was likely still interested after both it and BlackBerry denied the first Reuters report, I still feel the need to stress today's news doesn't guarantee such an acquisition will take place. Instead, I think BlackBerry investors would be wise to filter out this noise and focus on the company's enterprise-centric strategies to create shareholder value as an independent business. In the end, I'm personally not convinced those strategies will prove effective, so have no problem continuing to watch BlackBerry from the sidelines.
