BlackBerry Acquisition Makes Sense to Lenovo CEO
Acquisition or no, Lenovo will still depend on its own products to succeed.
Back in January during an interview at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Lenovo Group Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai Ming casually mentioned that the company was accessing potential acquisition targets and strategic alliances. One of those targets was BlackBerry smartphone maker Research in Motion which renamed itself as "BlackBerry" once the company launched its latest platform, BlackBerry 10.
"We are looking at all opportunities -- RIM and many others," Wong revealed. "We’ll have no hesitation if the right opportunity comes along that could benefit us and shareholders."
Lenovo followed up by saying that Wong was just speaking broadly, that Lenovo is very focused on growing its business, both organically and through M&A. When inorganic ideas arise, Lenovo explores them to see if there is a strategic fit, a company rep said.
"We are aware that Lenovo’s CFO [Wong] Waiming was speaking broadly about M&A strategy in a recent interview," the rep said. "RIM was raised as a potential target by the journalist and Mr. Wong repeatedly answered in a manner consistent with all of our previous statements on M&A strategy."
Now Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing is admitting that a BlackBerry buyout could possibly make sense. However he would need to "analyze the market well and understand what is the exact weight of [BlackBerry]." He then added that Lenovo cannot rely on external growth and acquisition to fully develop its business. Instead, Lenovo will continue to rely on its own products for its success.
Still, Yang and his company will remain "vigilant on the market and its players".
Currently Lenovo doesn't have a strong smartphone portfolio in North America, making BlackBerry an ideal acquisition candidate. But an acquisition would require approval from both U.S. and Canadian regulators because of the size of the transaction and because BlackBerry operates secure mobile networks for government agencies.
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BlackBerry seemingly became a takeover target for companies wanting the brand and services when it began to review its strategic options in 2012.
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redeemer Blackberry could make more cash chopping up and selling all those patents in their portfolio!Reply -
dalethepcman If blackberry really wants to get the most $'s and cash out, it would be in their interest to attempt to have Google purchase them, as Apple would pay 3-4 times the company's value just to keep Google from getting more patent defense.Reply -
f-14 if apple had leadership with brains they would have bought RIM a long time ago just for the RDram patents.Reply
right now i hope RIM gets bought out or has to sell the patents to RDram to some chip maker like samsung. google should grab the rest, work some kind of deal out with samsung for respective interested properties -
omnimodis78 f-14if apple had leadership with brains they would have bought RIM a long time ago just for the RDram patents. right now i hope RIM gets bought out or has to sell the patents to RDram to some chip maker like samsung. google should grab the rest, work some kind of deal out with samsung for respective interested propertiesSorry, what's this "RIM" you keep talking about. You mean BlackBerry - God if you're going to comment and make yourself out to be knowledgeable, at least get the company name right.Reply -
ta152h redeemerBlackberry could make more cash chopping up and selling all those patents in their portfolio!Reply
Maybe they should merge with RAMBUS so they can get an army of lawyers on their side, and start going after companies that inappropriately use their patents. They could just drop the phones completely. RAMBUS would love to own those technologies, and Blackberry would love to have their competency in patent enforcement on their side. Together, I feel like this company could have Apple and Samsung in court all the time, and this time not against each other!
I would certainly buy the stock, and wait for the lawsuits to begin. Such fun. -
acadia11 I told you folks long ago buy RIM, it's a win win situation , they struggle they'll get bought too many patents and hardware to just let fall by waste side , price goes up, if BB10 succeeded , you still win cause price goes up, after playing with a BB10 a couple of months before the launch I said, it's a wrap, RIM is back in business, cause it was a beauty. Nobody listened!Reply