AT&T now accepting pre-orders for BlackBerry Z10; BlackBerry shares soar over 14%

It was quite a day for BlackBerry and the Canadian firm's stockholders. First came news from France that the CEO of Lenovo had hinted to a French publication that the Chinese OEM would be interested in buying BlackBerry. That is the second time in 10 weeks that a top Lenovo executive hinted that the company was sniffing around BlackBerry. T-Mobile started selling the BlackBerry Z10to its business customers on Monday, priced at $249.99 on contract.That was followed by the official word from AT&T that the carrier was going to launch the BlackBerry Z10 on March 22nd for $199.99.

AT&T has started accepting pre-orders for the all-touch BlackBerry 10 model and is planning on shipping the device starting on March 20th to make sure that the units arrive on the March 22nd launch date. Shipping, by the way, is free. If you're interested in reserving the device, simply click on the sourcelink. According to the carrier's website, pre-orders are being accepted online only.

All of this good news combined to send BlackBerry's shares up over 14% on the day to close at $14.90. After hours, the shares tacked on a little more to trade at $15.10.

source: AT&T