Samsung Electronics CEO: We’re Not Buying BlackBerry

Last week, it was rumored that Samsung was thinking of paying more than $7 billion to acquire wireless device maker BlackBerry. But the co-CEO for Samsung Electronics says his company doesn’t want to marry Blackberry; just enjoy a friends with benefits relationship.

Samsung and Canada-based BlackBerry do enjoy a partnership involving mobile device security platforms, but Samsung Electronics co-CEO JK Shin says that actually acquiring BlackBerry isn’t in line with his company’s long-term goals.

“We want to work with BlackBerry and develop this partnership, not acquire the company,” he tells the Wall Street Journal.

There are discussions about using more of BB’s technology in Samsung devices, but the Korean electronics giant maintains that no merger is in the offing, even though such a deal would give Samsung control over BlackBerry’s 44,000 patents.

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