Lenovo has signaled its interest in acquiring beleaguered BlackBerry by signing a non-disclosure agreement in order to examine the smartphone company’s books.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the world’s No. 1 PC maker, which maintains an executive headquarters in Morrisville, was looking at a bid for all of BlackBerry.
Reuters, citing a “source familiar with the matter” reported that Lenovo has signed a non-disclosure agreement with BlackBerry.
That source also told Reuters that Lenovo company faces regulatory obstacles if it bids for all of BlackBerry and will likely pursue only parts of the company.
Lenovo already has a presence in the smartphone market but that presence is primarily in China. An acquisition of BlackBerry could give the company access to a customers around the world along with relationships with numerous carriers.
Lenovo declined to comment about the reports.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday in Beijing, one of Lenovo’s top executives said the company was being careful in considering acquisition opportunities. Lenovo is also reportedly in discussions with smartphone manufacturer HTC.
“We will not buy for the sake of buying,” Wong Wai Ming, chief financial officer of the world’s largest personal-computer maker, said in an interview with Bloomberg News at the company’s Beijing headquarters yesterday. “Even when an opportunity, on the face of it, makes perfect sense for us to do it, it may not happen.”
To counter falling global PC shipments, Lenovo is trying to spur sales of its mobile devices and push into the market for storage equipment and servers running corporate networks. With $3.1 billion in cash at the end of June, Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing has said he’s willing to strengthen new businesses through acquisitions.
“Lenovo has very prudent matrices when looking at acquisitions,” Ken Hui, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Jefferies, said in a phone interview. “They want to make sure, if it’s a loss-making business, that there is a strong plan to turn losses into profit, soon.”
BlackBerry told Reuters it is conducting a thorough review of its alternatives and that it does not intend to disclose further developments until it approves a transaction, or otherwise concludes the review.
BlackBerry said in August it was exploring options, including a sale of the company. The Canadian company already has a $4.7 billion offer on the table from its largest shareholder, Canada’s Farifax Financial Holdings. Under that offer, Fairfax has until the start of November to examine BlackBerry’s financials. In the meantime, BlackBerry can seek other offers.
Reuters, citing numerous sources, says BlackBerry is in talks with several companies including Cisco Systems, Google and German company SAP about selling the company as a whole or in parts. Those companies have declined comment and none have submitted formal bids yet. But Reuters says industry experts believe that industry players are interested in some of the pieces of BlackBerry that would mesh well with or expand their own businesses.
