NEW YORK (TheStreet) –– BlackBerry may not be dead after all. And it may be Apple's biggest competitor -- Samsung -- that wants BlackBerry, and with good reason. Reuters reported that Samsung recently approached BlackBerry for acquisition talks, with Samsung looking to acquire the Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry for $7.5 billion to gain access to its patents. Many on Wall Street think it's a good move. Must Read: Can BlackBerry's New Classic Phone Restore Its Shares To Nostalgic Levels? "Strategically it makes a lot of sense," said Hudson Square analyst Dan Ernst via email. "Samsung wants into the enterprise and wants less reliance on Google ." The reported purchase price of $7.5 billion would represent a sharp premium over BlackBerry's market cap, which had been just over $4 billion prior to the report. BlackBerry shares gained 29.7% following the report, to $12.60 at Wednesday's close. Both BlackBerry and Samsung could not be immediately reached for comment for this story. The potential acquisition comes after both BlackBerry and Samsung have seen their share of the smartphone market fade in recent months. Rival Apple has seen exceptionally strong demand for its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. According to research firm Gartner, BlackBerry had just 0.8% market share by operating system in the U.S., compared to 12.7% for Apple's iOS and 83.7% for Google's Android. On a handset level, Samsung owned 20.6% of the U.S. market in the third quarter of 2014, down from 25.7% in the third quarter of 2013. Apple, by contrast, had 8.4% of the handset market, up from 6.7% in the third quarter of 2013. BlackBerry recently reported its fiscal 2015 third-quarter results, which showed some improvement in reducing the cost structure and generating positive cash flow, but revenue continued to decline. In BlackBerry's fiscal 2015 third quarter, the company posted a far better-than-expected adjusted profit of $6 million, with earnings of 1 cent a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were anticipating a loss of 5 cents. Revenue during the three-month period proved to be a surprise of a different kind, coming in at $793 million vs. a market consensus of $931.53 million. During the quarter, BlackBerry sold just 1.9 million smartphones, noticeably less than the 2.1 million sold in the prior quarter and below analysts' expectations of greater than 2 million devices sold. The disappointing hardware sales were amplified by analysts' hopes that the BlackBerry Passport, which went on sale in late September, would buoy the category and drive up average selling prices for devices. During the conference call, CEO John Chen admitted that hardware sales were weaker than expected, and said the company's production capabilities were limited in the quarter. Must Read: BlackBerry Passport Review: Living With One and Having Second Thoughts --Written by Chris Ciaccia in New York >Contact by Email. Follow @Chris_Ciaccia // 0;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); // ]]>
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