Sec Probes Blackberry Options Trading Ahead Of Reuters Report About Samsung Talks

[Ron Burgundy]

By Charles Levinson NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating a January 14 spike in trading in BlackBerry Ltd options that took place hours before Reuters reported that Samsung Electronics Co was in talks to buy the Canadian smartphone maker, according to a person familiar with the investigation. One trade the SEC is looking at took place at 12:06 p.m. on that day, when there was a purchase of options with the rights to buy 200,000 shares of BlackBerry stock at a strike price of $10 a share, the person said. Later that afternoon, Reuters reported that Samsung had offered to buy BlackBerry for as much as $7.5 billion, valuing its stock at between $13.35 to $15.49 per share, a 38 percent to 60 percent premium over BlackBerry’s trading price at the time. BlackBerry’s stock, which closed on Jan. 13 at $9.71, shot up 30% on the news to close at $12.60 on Jan. 14, its biggest one-day gain in years.

View the full article