Last week rumors started to circulate that Chinese computer maker Lenovo was interested in acquiring Canadian technology company Research In Motion (RIM).
RIM shares were on the rise as Canadian news outlets reported rumors of Lenovo's interest in RIM, the maker of BlackBerry smartphones.
On Monday a spokesperson for Lenovo sent a statement to TNW (The Next Web) stating that a quote by Lenovo’s CFO Wong Wai Ming was taken out of context by the Bloomberg News service.
The question that comes to mind, if there is no truth in the rumor, why take the time to deny it?
Does a Lenovo BlackBerry make sense?
Lenovo has been rising in market share to become a world leader in personal computer sales. Lenovo acquired IBM's personal computer business and the ThinkPad brand in 2005. Lenovo recently announced a ThinkPad Chromebook aimed at the education market. Lenovo currently does not have a strong presence in the smartphone arena.
BlackBerry was the standard for business class smartphones for many years. After several quarters of slumping sales some see Research In Motion as having one last chance at survival. RIM Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins will unveil new the BlackBerry 10 phones in New York on Wednesday.
Like their acquisition of the IBM Thinkpad, BlackBerry would give Lenovo a respected platform with instant world wide name recognition.
A RIM Lenovo marriage sounds good from a technology side, but there could be many social and political hurdles for the Chinese Lenovo to overcome in a takeover of the Canadian based RIM.
Would RIM sell out?
Right now the optimism for the success of RIM is a higher than it has been for years based on hope that the BlackBerry 10 operating system will win back loyal fans.
So why would RIM be looking to sell out at this point? Perhaps RIM may be looking for a backup plan to sell off their assets should the new OS fail?
Will you see the Lenovo BlackBerry in the future? You never know. Who heard of a Lenovo ThinkPad prior to 2005?
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