Blackberry Shares Rise As Lenovo CEO Mentions A Possible Buyout Deal

Blackberry shares jumped the most in the last few months as Lenovo Group CEO, Yang Yuanqing, was quoted in a French financial newspaper saying that his company may eventually consider buying the smartphone maker.

Lenovo’s Yang Yuanqing told Les Echos that a deal with Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry “could possibly make sense, but first I need to analyze the market and understand what exactly the importance of this company is.”

In January, Lenovo CFO Wong Wai Ming, told Bloomberg News that the company was “looking at all opportunities,” including BlackBerry. Shares of Blackberry, earlier known as Research In Motion, rose 14% to close at $14.90 at NYSE.

Any foreign bid for BlackBerry would need regulatory approval. The Canadian government automatically reviews all foreign takeovers of companies with asset values of more than C$344 million ($335 million) to determine whether the transactions are of “net benefit” to the country.

Blackberry CEO Thorsten Heins, on the other hand, has different opinions about this move.

“As always with these topics, we will talk about things when they are ready to be talked about and ready to be announced,” Heins said in an interview at the time. “There are other constituents in the process that need to be involved — if there would be anything.”

Blackberry is counting on the Blackberry 10 OS to turn its fate around. Apart from using the OS in its own devices, Blackberry is also looking to license the software to OEMs.