Remember the BlackBerry?
The Canadian company that made the once-ubiquitous smartphones is now focused on cybersecurity and software, having exited the smartphone business over the last few years.
And, suddenly, the shares of Blackberry are a hot commodity. Shares rose 28.42 percent on Monday to $18.03, the highest price in almost 10 years. They have gained 175 percent since 2021 began.
The company told Canadian securities regulators that it is unaware of any reasons for the surge.
The gains come as shares of Gamestop, the video game shop company, have soared thanks to Reddit-driven day traders, speculators, and investors hopping on board to chase the gains. Shares of Gamestop are up 328 percent year-to-date. At their height on Monday, shares were up 145 percent from their Friday close. By the end of the day, shares had given back much of those gains. After briefly turning negative for the day, the shares were up 18 percent at the close.
Posts on the Reddit group r/wallstreetbets, the bulletin board widely credited for sparking the Gamestop rally, indicate a lot of enthusiasm for the stock. Some of the rationales given by posters predicting the stock will continue to rise are based on recent developments at the company. Others are just ridiculous.
“I LIKE THE 2 B’S IT’S AESTHETICALLY PLEASING ,” one user said, citing the company’s ticker symbol.
Last year, Blackberry announced a multi-year partnership with Amazon web services to co-develop BlackBerry IVY, a new “cloud-connected intelligent vehicle data platform” that offers automakers a “standardized secure way to read and analyze vehicle sensor data.” Last week, the company settled an intellectual property lawsuit the company had filed against Facebook, accusing the social network of infringing on Blackberry’s messaging technology.