Seoul: South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co said on Thursday it has not considered acquiring Research In Motion or licensing the embattled BlackBerry phone maker’s new mobile operating system.
Shares of RIM rose more than 5 percent early on Wednesday after an influential analyst said it may license the BlackBerry 10 system to Samsung.
Jefferies & Co analyst Peter Misek had said that RIM’s strategic review process, begun earlier this year, would likely result in the Canadian company concluding that it needs to license BlackBerry 10, the operating system it is now developing.
Not buying or licensing RIM’s new OS, says Samsung. AP
“Given recent management comments in the press, it now appears that RIM is realising what Wall Street has been saying for some time: they are a subscale manufacturer and desperately need a partner,” Misek wrote in a research note on Tuesday.
“We believe RIM is attempting to revive discussions with Samsung regarding a BB10 licensing deal.”
The system, known as BB10, will run a next-generation line of BlackBerrys expected to launch early next year.
Samsung’s own success in the smartphone category has been due to Google’s Android OS. Samsung has also launched smartphones with Windows 7.5 for mobile but Android’s success has overshadowed everything else.
Reuters
