Lenovo Ready To Purchase Research In Motion?

Research In Motion has been the root of many acquisition rumors ever since the company started bleeding money and losing smartphone market share. This week the newest rumor comes directly from Lenovo’s CFO Wang Wai Ming.

Speaking to Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Ming explained that Lenovo is examining the smartphone manufacturer as a potential acquisition or perhaps a strategic alliance partner.

Rumors have circulated for months that RIM would attempt to sell off its mobile phone manufacturing division and instead focus on software creation.

Last week RIM CEO Thorsten Heins told Die Welt that RIM was considering the option of licensing its BlackBerry 10 OS to 3rd party manufacturers. Heins also revealed during his interview that selling the company’s hardware production division was a distinct possibility.

Lenovo has since come forward as a potential buyer. According to Wong:

“We are looking at all opportunities–RIM and many others. We’ll have no hesitation if the right opportunity comes along that could benefit us and shareholders.”

Wong also revealed that Lenovo has already spokenw ith RIM about various deals that could move forward under the right conditions.

Lenovo is hardly the first company to be rumored towards a Lenovo deal, back in 2011 Amazon was seen as a potential buyer. In 2012 Samsung was also rumored to be eyeing RIMs smartphone manufacturing division.

TechCrunch notes of the possible buyout:

“A takeover of RIM by a Chinese company would certainly raise security questions–especially for the company once described as a Canadian “crown jewel” by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And back in July, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said that the company has pulled back from expanding its China operations because of concerns over protecting its sensitive networks.”

If a deal between BlackBerry and Lenovo occurs it probably won’t move forward until the success of BlackBerry 10 can be gauged via its public release.

[Image via androidpolice]