Lenovo will face obstacles in any BlackBerry deal

Lenovo will face obstacles in any BlackBerry deal: source

7:52pm EDT

By Nadia Damouni and Euan Rocha

NEW YORK/TORONTO (Reuters) – Chinese computer maker Lenovo, which has signed a non-disclosure deal to examine BlackBerry’s books, faces regulatory obstacles if it bids for all of the company and will likely pursue just parts, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday. BlackBerry Ltd said in August it was exploring options that could include an outright sale. And the Canadian company, which helped pioneer smartphones, has since been linked with a string of potential buyers from private equity firms to rival technology companies.Its shares, which rose 4 percent after the Wall Street Journal first reported the interest from Lenovo Group Ltd, ended up less than a percent at $8.20 on the Nasdaq.

Multiple sources close to the matter have told Reuters BlackBerry is in talks with Cisco Systems Inc, Google Inc and Germany’s SAP AG among others, about selling all, or parts of itself. The potential buyers have all declined to comment.

None of these technology companies have made a formal bid for BlackBerry yet. However, industry experts believe that, while these players might not be interested in all of BlackBerry, they are keen on at least some pieces that would mesh well with or expand their own businesses.

Two sources said they expect some of these strategic players to be paired in bids for BlackBerry, depending on their level of interest its hardware and network assets.

Such a deal would be an alternative to a preliminary, $9-a- share offer by a group led by BlackBerry’s biggest shareholder, Canada’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Earlier this month, co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin said they were also considering a bid.

TOUGH REGULATORY REVIEW

The sale of BlackBerry, or any of its assets will likely undergo tough regulatory reviews in both Ottawa and Washington.

Most security experts believe BlackBerry’s most vital asset, a secure network that handles millions of confidential corporate and government emails every day, is likely to be sold to a North American entity because of the security concerns. Its less contentious handset business, however, could be shopped to an Asian device maker.

Under the Investment Canada Act, the federal government has wide ranging powers to veto any foreign takeover of a Canadian asset or company if it deems such a deal would not bring a “net benefit” to the country, or if it believes a deal might pose a threat to national security.

Last week, Canada blocked an Egyptian telecommunication entrepreneur’s bid to acquire the Allstream fiber optic network owned by Manitoba Telecom Services Inc, citing unspecified national security concerns.

Industry Minister James Moore declined comment on the Lenovo interest in BlackBerry.

LENOVO INTEREST

BlackBerry, based in Waterloo, Ontario, virtually invented mobile email with its first pagers, but it has rapidly lost market share to rivals in recent years.

Its latest results highlighted disappointing sales for a new line of devices the company initially saw as its way to win back market share from Apple Inc’s iPhone and the numerous devices powered by Google’s Android operating system.

And senior Lenovo executives have on more than one occasion expressed an interest in acquiring BlackBerry, or parts of the company, as it would help boost their own smartphone business.

In an interview at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, Lenovo Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai Ming told Bloomberg the company would consider a bid for BlackBerry.

Lenovo downplayed the comments at the time, saying that Wong was speaking broadly about Lenovo’s M&A strategy.

A spokesman for Lenovo declined to comment on news of the company’s renewed interest. BlackBerry said it is conducting a thorough review of its alternatives and that it does not intend to disclose further developments until it approves a transaction, or otherwise concludes the review.

The Wall Street Journal said Lenovo was looking at a bid for all of BlackBerry, which includes its faltering hardware unit, along with its security-focused service businesses and a string of hard-to value patents.

Lenovo Approaches BlackBerry

Chinese Company Considers Buying Canadian Smartphone Maker

DANA MATTIOLI, DANA CIMILLUCA and LIZ HOFFMAN

Updated Oct. 17, 2013 4:06 p.m. ET

Lenovo Group Ltd. 0992.HK -1.32% is actively considering a bid for all of struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd. BB.T +0.24% , according to people familiar with the matter, the latest sign of the voracious appetite of Chinese companies for foreign acquisitions.

The Chinese personal-computer maker has signed a “nondisclosure” agreement that allows it to look at BlackBerry’s books, one of the people said, joining a list of potential bidders for the company, which has put itself up for sale.

Spokesmen for BlackBerry and Lenovo, the world’s largest PC maker, declined to comment.

A Lenovo purchase of BlackBerry would be one of the biggest and most noteworthy Chinese acquisitions of a Western company. It would again highlight the desire of companies in the world’s second-largest economy to become bigger players in the West, where they stand to gain both industrial expertise and a wider array of products to sell their customers.

Just last month, Chinese pork giant Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. completed its purchase of Smithfield Foods Inc. for $4.7 billion, the biggest ever acquisition of a U.S. firm by a Chinese company.

Lenovo, a late comer to the smartphone market, has gained traction in its home market and now ships more smartphones than BlackBerry. In the second quarter, Lenovo accounted for 4.7% of global smartphone sales, according to research firm Gartner, while BlackBerry’s share fell to 2.7%.

Should Lenovo follow through and succeed with a binding offer for BlackBerry—still a big if—the proposed deal would be certain to face government scrutiny in both Canada and the U.S.

Bids for BlackBerry, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, are expected to come in by Nov. 4, according to a person familiar with the matter.

BlackBerry accounts for about 470,000 of the 600,000 mobile devices owned and issued by the Defense Department, according to a Pentagon spokesman. In all, more than a million BlackBerry devices were in use by U.S. federal and state employees as of the end of last year, according to the company. President Barack Obama is among those users.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. would likely review any proposed purchase of BlackBerry by Lenovo. Cfius, an interagency panel, focuses solely on national-security risks. The Treasury, which leads the committee, doesn’t comment on cases under review.

A spokeswoman for Canadian Industry Minister James Moore, the official responsible for approving any foreign-led bid that might emerge for BlackBerry, said Canada’s government is aware that the company is exploring a sale, but she declined to comment on the process.

In Washington, Lenovo is a known quantity. In 2005 it bought International Business Machines Corp.’s IBM -6.37% PC business for $1.25 billion—at the time one of the biggest foreign acquisitions ever by a Chinese company—with relatively little fanfare. Back then, IBM PCs were widely used by U.S. government officials, just as BlackBerry devices are today. Lenovo has since completed several smaller deals that would have likely required U.S. approval.

The company opened a manufacturing plant in North Carolina in June, and more than a third of its top dozen officials are Westerners, according to its website.

Lenovo spent $110,000 on lobbying in the U.S. last year, according to OpenSecrets.org, down from $480,000 in 2011. Both are relatively modest sums compared with lobbying outlays by other major technology companies. Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ +0.45% , for example, spent $7.2 million on lobbying in 2012.

BlackBerry might be willing to put up with some political noise and a lengthy review process to be rewarded with a higher price, said Jeff Bialos, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense who now practices law in Washington. “All things being equal, [BlackBerry] would rather sell to a North American buyer,” said Mr. Bialos, who isn’t involved in the company’s auction. “You go to China for the premium.”

Canada requires any foreign bid for a Canadian company exceeding 344 million Canadian dollars (US$334 million) to pass a government review to determine whether it is a “net economic benefit” or a security risk to the country.

Canada’s Conservative government has rejected three proposed foreign takeovers of Canadian assets since coming to power in early 2006.

Last week, in a surprise announcement, the country rejected a deal led by Egyptian telecom entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris to buy a division of Manitoba Telecom ServicesInc., MBT.T -0.96% citing national-security concerns. That division is arguably less strategically important to Canada’s government than BlackBerry, whose smartphones are widely used by officials there.

Last December, Canada gave the green light to the $15.1 billion takeover of Canadian oil-sands company Nexen Inc. by Cnooc Ltd. CEO -0.14% , a Chinese state-owned enterprise. But the government signaled that any further deals for Canadian oil-sands assets led by Chinese state-owned companies would be approved only under “exceptional” circumstances, as further foreign-government involvement in that sector was no longer a “net benefit” to Canada’s economy.

Lenovo would have some competition for BlackBerry, which in August officially put itself on the block after years of ceding smartphone market share to rivals including Apple Inc.AAPL +0.68% and Samsung Electronics Co. 005930.SE +0.55%

Last month, BlackBerry reached a preliminary $4.7 billion buyout deal with Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. FFH.T -0.33% , a Canadian insurance firm that is one of tge company’s largest shareholders. Others that have been considering BlackBerry bids include Cerberus Capital Management LP, which has also signed a non-disclosure agreement to look at the books, according to a person familiar with the matter, and BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, who recently disclosed their interest in a public filing.

In 4 p.m. Nasdaq trading Thursday, BlackBerry shares were up 7 cents at $8.20. Fairfax’s preliminary bid is equivalent to $9 a share.

Unlike some big Chinese companies, Lenovo isn’t state-owned. In addition to PCs and smartphones, it makes tablets, servers and accessories, such as keyboards and mice. In PCs, Lenovo has been gaining market share.

A report from research firm IDC this summer showed that Lenovo became the world’s largest PC vendor in the quarter through June, unseating H-P, as industrywide PC shipments fell 12% from a year earlier.

Lenovo has indicated that it is trying to expand its smartphone business to secure another source of growth. Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing, in an August interview with The Wall Street Journal, said the company’s smartphone business was in the development stage. He added that Lenovo is trying to become a market leader in China.