As BlackBerry’s self-imposed deadline to sell itself by November approaches, another potential suitor has emerged. According to The Wall Street Journal, Lenovo is “actively considering a bid” for BlackBerry. With a confidentiality agreement in place, Lenovo is reportedly going through BlackBerry’s books to decide whether to move forward or not.
Lenovo, a Chinese company, would likely face tough scrutiny both in Canada in the U.S. should it move forward with a BlackBerry acquisition. BlackBerry devices are still widely used by both countries’ governments with more than one million devices used by U.S. federal and state governments. National security concerns could very well derail a Lenovo bid. For example, Industry Canada recently rejected Allstream’s acquisition by Accelero over “national security provisions of the Investment Canada Act.”
Unlike many other Chinese companies, Lenovo is not state-owned. It also has a history of buying other technology companies, notably IBM’s PC business back in 2005. Since then, it has established itself as a top player in the computer hardware business.
Should Lenovo move ahead with its bid, it may find itself competing against Fairfax Financial (which has a tentative US$4.7 billion offer to take the company private on the table) as well as competing offers from companies such as Cisco, SAP and Google and even one from Google co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin.
Rumours that Lenovo could be considering acquiring BlackBerry first surfaced in January 2013. They were quickly denied by the company. But the company has not denied that it would not rule out acquisitions to grow its smartphone business, especially as it considers a move into the U.S. market in 2014.
Source : The Wall Street Journal