Was the BlackBerry-Samsung rumor a ploy to manipulate stock prices?

Remember a few weeks ago when some rumors that Samsung was looking to acquire BlackBerry popped up? Well those rumors were quickly dismissed by both companies but not before BlackBerry’s stock prices went through the roof. This made some regulators in the US and Canada a bit suspicious and now they’re investigating whether the whole thing was a plot by BlackBerry investors to manipulate stock prices. 

Securities regulators in the U.S. and Canada are probing whether a recent news report about a possible purchase of BlackBerry Ltd. by Samsung Electronics Co. was sparked by investors intent on manipulating the Canadian smartphone maker’s stock. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission are in the early stages of examining trading activity around the time of a report by Reuters in January that Samsung was pursuing a takeover of BlackBerry for as much as $7.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Investigators are looking at whether someone deliberately fed information to reporters at the news service for the purpose of profiting on the resulting stock increase, one of the people said.