Samsung joins BlackBerry in trashing Reuters biz gobble 'exclusive'

The president of Samsung has to put to rest any lingering speculation that his company was seeking to acquire smartphone minnow BlackBerry.

Jong-Kyun Shin said in an email published by Bloomberg that the South Korean biz had no interest in buying the Canadian firm.

"We want to work with BlackBerry and develop this partnership, not acquire the company,” the email reads.

This is in response to speculation of a merger triggered by a Reuters report last week. Citing unnamed sources and internal documents, the business wire claimed Samsung was willing to spend $7.5bn to gobble BlackBerry, and that the Canadians' patent portfolio was Samsung's main target.

Just hours after those allegations surfaced, however, it was bluntly denied by BlackBerry in a public statement.

"BlackBerry has not engaged in discussions with Samsung with respect to any possible offer to purchase BlackBerry," the firm said.

Bear in mind, though, that Shin said a partnership with BlackBerry was not out of the question. "BlackBerry is one of our important business-to-business strategic partners,” he added.

As Blackberry has continued to find itself swirling the drain, rumors have popped up again and again that it is in talks with various companies for acquisition. Among those rumored as buyers were Lenovo and Huawei, though BlackBerry execs have downplayed the possibility of a sale. ®