Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd shares had rose by 4% last Monday. This was after news of possible interest from strategic buyers in the struggling smartphone company. BlackBerry had also received an analyst upgrade on the company's stock, said a Reuters report.

The shares in the company increased to USD8 during morning trading on the Nasdaq. This was after Reuters had reported that the Ontario based company was in discussions with Cisco Systems, Google Inc and SAP about a potential sale for the company.

Macquarie analyst Kevin Smithe had upgraded his rating BlackBerry to "neutral" from "underperform". This was after the reported potential interest from strategic buyers following the recent decline in the share price of the struggling smartphone manufacturer.

In a note to clients last Monday, Smithen said that the recent slump in the share price of the company was well below Fairfax Financial Holding's bid price of USD9. He added, "the company has finally attracted enough interest from the global tech titans who may take a 'punt' on enterprise mobility."