BlackBerry Announces Company Seeking Strategic Alternatives; Shares up Roughly 7.5%

Just before the 8:00 am EST rush Monday morning, BlackBerry (NASDAQ: BBRY) announced it was seeking "strategic alternatives", which could include sales of assets or possibly going private.

Shares were halted leading into the report, and following their opening at 8:30, they spiked as much as 9.4 percent, and proceeded to trade in a very volatile fashion. There also seemed to be some arbitrage going on between shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange and those on the NASDAQ.

Speculation has surrounded BlackBerry since a report came out on Friday from Reuters that the company was considering going private.

Shares of BlackBerry were up 7.48 percent to $14.48 leading into the market open Monday.