News says SEC investigates BlackBerry stock Options Rally Insider

February 6 (Reuters)--The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating a surprise surge in options prices for the Canadian smartphone maker, the source said on January 14, Reuters reported. The SEC-traded deal took place 12:06 P.M. that day when buyers bought options to buy 200,000 stocks of blackberry stocks, the person said. Later that afternoon, Reuters reported that Samsung was bidding for up to 7.5 billion dollars in the acquisition of BlackBerry, and the BlackBerry was valued at 13.35-15.49 dollars/shares, a 38-60% than the BlackBerry's share price. The BlackBerry stock closed at 9.71 dollars on January 13 and January 14, when the report closed, it rose 30% to 12.60 dollars, the biggest daily gain for years. These options are due on January 23, the original price of 10 cents per share, reported by Reuters, the option price rose to 2.55 U.S. dollars. If the buyer could sell the option at that price, 20,000 dollars would earn 490,000 dollars in profits. It is unclear whether the buyer will be able to sell options to make money. According to people familiar with the investigation, the SEC is investigating whether the person who provided the news to Reuters bought the BlackBerry option. Samsung and BlackBerry later denied negotiations, followed by a plunge in BlackBerry shares. Reuters later corrected the report by clarifying that the negotiations were between advisers rather than executives. There are no indications that Reuters is the target of the investigation. A spokeswoman for Thomson Reuters declined to comment. (Mushulin)