About the 80,000 BlackBerrys the DoD “bought”: It didn’t

Reports of an 80,000 BlackBerry order from the U.S. Department of Defense made the rounds earlier this week, driving up BlackBerry(s bbry) shares by 34 percent. Good news for the beleaguered handset maker, no? There’s only one problem. The DoD made no such purchase. Instead, the figure was assumed to be a new order when the DoD actually referenced the 80,000 BlackBerry handsets it already supports, according to a DoD statement provided to The Verge on Thursday. In BlackBerry’s defense, it didn’t put out a press release on the alleged large handset order. The company did recently announce the sale of 1,000 handsets to DATEV in Europe.