Summary: Lenovo has put some air between it and speculation that it is interesting in acquiring RIM, suggesting that it's open to all suggestions for takeover targets.
The speculation last week that Lenovo was to buy RIM may be nothing more than that, with the hardware maker refuting the acquisition rumours.
The initial story surfaced last week after Bloomberg quoted Lenovo CFO Wong Wai Ming as saying that it was considering takeover targets including RIM. "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," he told Bloomberg.
However, Lenovo said on Monday that its CFO had only meant to say that the company was open to all acquisition options, rather than specifically targeting the BlackBerry maker.
"In general, we do not comment on M&A rumours or speculation," Lenovo said in a statement supplied to ZDNet.
"We are aware that Lenovo's CFO Waiming was speaking broadly about M&A strategy in a recent interview. RIM was raised as a potential target by the journalist and Mr Wong repeatedly answered in a manner consistent with all of our previous statements on M&A strategy: Lenovo is very focused on growing its business, both organically and through M&A. When inorganic ideas arise, we explore them to see if there is a strategic fit.
"Beyond this we do not have anything else to say."
While Bloomberg and others speculated that Lenovo might be interested in expanding its business beyond the traditional PC market — in decline faced with the rise of smartphones, tablets and other hardware form factors — the match still seems an odd one. With RIM open to licensing its software, and Lenovo's own hardware and smartphone making background, there would seem little to be gained for Lenovo by such a union.
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