FollowThe exciting talks about Lenovo’s interest in buying the BlackBerry maker seem to be receding after Lenovo played down the rumours. Lenovo has given a clarification that its CFO was only saying that the company was open to all options and did not specifically mean Research in Motion, the BlackBerry maker.
The story sparked when Lenovo’s CFO Wong Wai Ming spoke at the recently held World Economic Forum about the company’s ‘acquisition targets’. Now, in the wake of the rumours that Lenovo is eyeing RIM as a potential target, the company clarified that Mr. Wong had responded in “a manner consistent” with the company’s earlier statements on M&A strategy while answering the journalist, who asked about RIM as a potential target. Lenovo says that it is open to “inorganic ideas,” but not in the context of targeting RIM specifically.
The possibility of taking over RIM is definitely a sound strategy to embrace success in the ever-growing smartphone market. Lenovo is the second largest player in a PC market that is hit hard by the revolutionary role of tablets. Despite that, it reported an 8 percent growth for Q4 2012.
Lenovo has successful smartphone and tablet brands selling in China, but has yet to make it in the West. RIM has also revealed that it is open to opportunities to sell its hardware business or license its software, or any other suitable deal. The BlackBerry maker has been hit by dwindling market share after Apple and Samsung grew big in the smartphone market, where RIM was once a dominant player.
While RIM is investigating various options, it is currently focused on launching its long-delayed BlackBerry 10. RIM hopes that the innovation in the latest make is likely to bring back its lost grandeur.
