BlackBerry Acquisition Speculation Surfaces Again Thanks To Lenovo CEO

Remember back in January when Lenovo CFO Wong Wai Ming hinted at a possible acquisition of BlackBerry (formerly known as RIM)? After discrediting those rumors shortly after they surfaced, Lenovo is back with more chatter of the possibility of a BlackBerry buyout. Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing says that a BlackBerry acquisition "could possibly make sense."

According to Bloomberg, Yuanqing told French newspaper Les Echos that buying BlackBerry would be possible, but Lenovo would first "need to analyze the market and understand what exactly the importance of this company is." These remarks are of similar timbre to Wong's comments back in January, although Lenovo downplayed the significance of Wong's comments.

Thanks to Yuanqing's comments, though, BlackBerry shares rose 9.7% to $14.32 today, which was the company's biggest midday gain since early last month. Shares closed at $14.87 for the day. When BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins was asked about the acquisition rumors, he slyly denied the claims and wasn't sure why Lenovo would make such comments.

Of course, all acquisitions have to be approved by regulators first, especially any foreign acquisition. An acquisition of Canadian-based BlackBerry would have to be automatically reviewed by the Canadian government, since the company value is over $335 million. The approval process would be to determine whether the transactions are of "net benefit" to the country.

[via Bloomberg]