Rumours that Samsung was looking to buy BlackBerry were met with flat out denials from both companies, but while an acquisition may not be in the works it looks like a closer partnership could be on the table.
J.K. Shin, head of Samsung Mobile Communications, said "We want to work with BlackBerry and develop this partnership, not acquire the company" in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
Samsung claimed in a statement that it wasn't interested in BlackBerry's security software as it's heavily invested in its own Knox platform, while BlackBerry's patents apparently aren't a big draw for Samsung either.
Sharing technology
The site goes on to reveal that Samsung is reportedly looking to extend the scope of its cooperation with BlackBerry and may even use BlackBerry technology in Samsung devices.
It's not clear what technology that might be, especially if Samsung really is focused on its own security and enterprise software, but on the other hand BlackBerry is already helping Samsung with its Android security, so further cooperation in that space could be on the cards.
There are other things BlackBerry does well though. Its BBM and BlackBerry Hub messaging software is well developed and could prove beneficial to Samsung.
And of course a partnership goes two ways, so it's feasible that one day we could see Samsung technology make its way to BlackBerry devices. If the two companies do continue to share their technology then that would surely be a good thing for users, who could potentially benefit from the best of both, but it still remains to be seen what form this strengthened partnership will take.
- BlackBerry's branching out by bringing BBM to Android Wear.
