Tech stocks: Could BlackBerry go private?

Smartphone maker BlackBerry is weighing whether to become a private company. Let's take a look at the tech stocks to watch Friday.

BlackBerry shares surge. The company's stock price has soared 10% off a Reuters report the struggling smartphone maker is open to going private. The report cites "several sources familiar with the situation."

The report says no deal is in the works, but CEO Thorsten Heins and BlackBerry's board have grown increasingly interested in the move to kickstart a turnaround without Wall Street attention.

Earlier this year, BlackBerry launched its first devices running the BlackBerry 10 operating system, entering an increasingly competitive smartphone market dominated by Apple, Google and its Android operating system as well as hardware maker Samsung.

According to IDC, Microsoft's Windows mobile platform passed BlackBerry for third place in global smartphone shipments based on operating system.

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