Potential Chinese buyers of BlackBerry: Lenovo experienced Huawei's obstruction

Tencent Technology, August 14, reported that the BlackBerry to seek the overall sale, but even in the rush to expand the global market, Asian mobile phone manufacturers are rarely interested in the acquisition of BlackBerry manufacturers. Corporate and government clients and technology patents were once the preserve of the Canadian smartphone maker, but these competitive advantages have almost vanished. The market fears that some of BlackBerry's core patents will be outdated, said Nicolas Baratte, head of technology research for Asia Pacific, CLSA asia-pacific CMC, France and its corporate customer base will shrink sharply as more companies switch to using iphones and Android phones. "It's hard to make an accurate assessment of the BlackBerry's business value now," says Barrett. "The BlackBerry's decision to seek potential partners or sellers also raises another question: will Chinese technology companies such as Lenovo and Huawei be interested in buying blackberries?" Currently, Lenovo is the world's largest PC maker, and Huawei is the world's second-largest telecoms equipment maker. All two companies are trying to expand their smartphone business to overseas markets, and they have enough reserves to support external acquisitions. Lenovo and Huawei's global smartphone sales have overtaken the BlackBerry, according to IDC, a market-research firm. But whether acquiring a BlackBerry will boost Lenovo's or Huawei's handset business is another issue. In its 25-year history, Huawei, headquartered in Shenzhen, has never made large external acquisitions, and the integration of BlackBerry and its engineers in Canada is risky. Huawei has been the focus of criticism and security warnings for years. Huawei's expansion plans in the US have been opposed by the US Congress because of concerns about its close ties with the Chinese military. It also casts a shadow over Huawei's takeover of the BlackBerry. A spokesman for Huawei said in Tuesday that the company would not comment on market rumours or speculation. Lenovo, which had successfully acquired IBM's PC business in 2005, became the only large Chinese technology company with a good record of acquiring Western hardware manufacturers. Lenovo's view of the company's keen interest in stimulating smartphone growth through external acquisitions is not taboo. But a spokesman for Lenovo declined to comment on whether to take part in the acquisition of the BlackBerry. "We have been actively seeking external acquisitions," the spokesman said. In particular, after integration with Lenovo, these acquisition objectives should be able to effectively enhance the company's growth potential, and to enhance our overall business and performance to bring new synergies. However, Barrett points out that the BlackBerry lacks the competitive advantage to attract Lenovo's participation in the acquisition. He also said that since the BlackBerry already has no obvious competitive advantage and its market share is falling rapidly, any Chinese buyer integrating the BlackBerry's bad business seems to be accompanied by high complexity and high costs. Meanwhile, some media reports say privatisation may be the most likelyMeasures taken. Canadian Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, which holds 10% per cent of the BlackBerry and is also the largest shareholder of the company, was reported by the global Mail, the local media, in Monday, citing unnamed sources in the Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd is negotiating with private-equity institutions and industry companies that may be interested in acquiring BlackBerry. Pleme Vatesa Prem Watsa, the company's chairman, also announced in Monday that he would resign as director of the BlackBerry Company.