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Blackberry Businesses Canada Cellphones

Rumor: Lenovo In Talks To Buy BlackBerry 73

Posted by Soulskill from the business-segments dept.
BarbaraHudson writes: The CBC, the Financial Post, and The Toronto Sun are all reporting a possible sale of BlackBerry to Lenovo. From the Sun: "BlackBerry shares rose more than 3% on Monday after a news website said Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group might offer to buy the Canadian technology company. Rumors of a Lenovo bid for BlackBerry have swirled many times over the last two years. Senior Lenovo executives at different times have indicated an interest in BlackBerry as a means to strengthen their own handset business. The speculation reached a crescendo in the fall of 2013, when BlackBerry was exploring strategic alternatives. Sources familiar with the situation however, told Reuters last year that the Canadian government had strongly hinted to BlackBerry that any sale to Lenovo would not win the necessary regulatory approvals due to security concerns. Analysts also have said any sale to Lenovo would face regulatory obstacles, but they have suggested that a sale of just BlackBerry's handset business and not its core network infrastructure might just pass muster with regulators."
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Rumor: Lenovo In Talks To Buy BlackBerry More

Rumor: Lenovo In Talks To Buy BlackBerry

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  • Different reactions (Score:3)

    by manu0601 ( 2221348 ) on Monday October 20, 2014 @07:34PM (#48191489)
    Regulators looks at purcahse from a chineese company as suspect for security reasons, but when espionage is done by the US, there is no problem.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      So it's ok for Chinese companies to buy up controlling stakes in every last Canadian natural resource company, but not BlackBerry. Interesting priorities.

      • Yeah, I wonder about this. It's extremely hard to come up with numbers. You typically end up with specific cases hitting the news in chunks, like this: http://www.theglobeandmail.com... [theglobeandmail.com]

        Then there's my own anecdotal evidence from copper mining, where my friend left his management position at one Canadian mining company shortly after a Chinese company acquired 51%, only to have another Chinese company buy a 40% stake in the next company he ended up at. Now he's waiting for the other shoe to drop, when the

        • I assume the difference is that if it becomes an issue of national security, the government can take the natural resources back.

        • > Chinese company acquired 51%, only to have another Chinese company buy a 40% stake in the next company he ended up at.

          This is a problem why?

          If you don't like it, stop sending them all your money.

  • Red mouse nub (Score:5, Funny)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Monday October 20, 2014 @07:38PM (#48191505)
    They will add the little red mouse pointer nub to the middle of the blackberry keyboard. Progress at last!
    • No, they'll probably just find a way to ruin blackberries too.

      I mean, all they had to do to get guaranteed business was just keep thinkpads the same. Instead, we get chiclet keyboards and trackpoint buttons integrated in the touchpad for whatever reason. I like the build quality (my current one has been spilled on and burnt), but I'll probably just have to buy some dell or whatever with a trackpoint.

      I can live with the post-IBM drop in quality, but nowadays they've removed almost everything that makes a

  • Perhaps they are confused (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LessThanObvious ( 3671949 ) on Monday October 20, 2014 @08:05PM (#48191655)

    Blackberry lives on only in the market of security conscious business and government. Once sold to the Chinese, no one will buy. It's fun when there are no trustworthy options for the mass market (Blackphone excluded). I wonder what phone Obama will get if they take over Blackberry.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Blackberry lives on only in the market of security conscious business and government. Once sold to the Chinese, no one will buy. It's fun when there are no trustworthy options for the mass market (Blackphone excluded). I wonder what phone Obama will get if they take over Blackberry.

      Devil's Advocate: Poor people in the UK, plus the Indian market, (plus a good portion of the Chinese market) may be a market of people who have no secrets to hide from the PLA, but who don't want a device pre-compromised by NSA

      • I agree there are markets were Blackberry can stay relevant especially if they breath some now life into the devices. When I say "no one will buy" I mean the western businesses and governments that have a tangible reason to protect data. I use Lenovo laptops once I clear out the factory bloatware that I don't trust. The last time I failed to do so it got owned and the Lenovo bloatware was specifically involved.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Yet I see lots of businesses moving from HP/Dell to Lenovo for their notebooks and workstations. I think adding a brand like Blackberry, so loved in business, is a great add to their portfolio. They'll be able to deliver the entire package, phone, notebook, mgmt servers, ... without being dependent on specific platforms.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jp10558 ( 748604 )

        This is because Lenovo tends to be price competitive and less failure prone (at least in my experience with the business lines). Also, their tech support believes your troubleshooting rather than asking if you've tried turning it on and off.

        That said, their on-site service is apparently woefully understaffed, and it is most definitely NOT NBD no mater what they claim. More like next business week. Then again, I only need that in the exceedingly rare case I need a desktop's motherboard replaced.

        We just keep

  • Over 100 car companies disappeared by WWII.

    Now in 2014 a half dozen former "cell phone" makers have sort of slipped out of sight; Palm, BB, Moto, Win, Nokia, Dell & HP something.

    The world contracts to a few super usable designs but instead of taking 50 years for cars, now it took only about 5 years with "the smartphone."

    Is this the scenario for the future; Be right, Be first, Be best or else?

    • Don't look now, but Moto just released one of the best Android phones ever, is about to release the Droid Turbo, and is the manufacturer of the Nexus 6.

    • I think the lesson with BlackBerry isn't one of older companies vanishing from sight, but one of constant innovation being required to stay in the market. BlackBerry took a leading cell phone position (before the term "smartphone" was common) and was the top of the line. Then devices like the iPhone came out and BlackBerry scoffed at them. They were on the top of the heap, why should they react to something from Apple? Apple made computers, not phones! But customers liked the new features* and flocked

  • Not sure how many people here have used Lenovo phones, because I dont think any US carriers have them... But I had one on a BYOP deal for a while and it was a great phone. There seem to be very limitted choices for more rugged phones and the Lenovo I had was pretty much water proof, shock proof, and I got it for $200.

    Back when I had a blackberry it was similarly rugged, though not waterproof. I could see this being a good thing. I could see a market for a Blackberry shaped android phone, that was tough and

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The best part is that if your phone is somehow damaged, a Chinese intelligence agent will sneak in and replace it for you, free of charge.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Blackberry is rumoured to consider selling their handset division

      So, Blackberry, after changing their name to Blackberry would no longer be making or selling... Blackberrys.

      That's right, and it makes sense. They tried to get Lenovo to buy them in 2013, and that didn't pan out, because of IP issues. Now, if they sold just the handset division and the brand name, they could resurrect the Research in Motion brand, and emphasize their services division, which they've been beefing up via acquisitions. In other words, they want to do with their phones what IBM did with their laptops. Get rid of a low-margin hardware business with high inventory requirements and concentrate on hig

  • Lenovo phones (Score:1, Informative)

    by Candyly ( 3885793 )
    As a Chinese, I am quite familari with Lenovo, lenovo phones, lenovo computers, a reliable Chinese supplier. For BlackBerry, I am not farmilar with this brand, and in my heart, foreign brand can not let me be at ease. But that not mean foreigh brand is poor, it is just a local person's thinking.

    • Lenovo phones (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Don't worry because Blackerry is known for their very high quality phones. They are mostly for business and not entertainment, and that is why they became less popular over the years. Nobody does a better job with messaging and security. Lenovo would be lucky if they are allowed to buy them.

      • People do get that the only thing that knocked RIM from the top of the heap was the lawsuit filed by patent troll NTP, right?

        They weren't beaten on technical merits. They weren't beaten because they "don't understand consumers". They weren't beaten on style, or execution, or anything else.

        They were beaten by a corrupt US legal system that forced the guys running the company to stop running the company, hang around in a court room for years and in the end pay over half a trillion dollars to patent trolls.

        L

        • RIM were beaten by their own cowardice. Just hours before they were due to win, they caved in and signed a deal with the patent troll.

          Then they began giving governments backdoor access [slashdot.org]. Saudi Arabia (not exactly known for their human rights) was the first. That is when RIM should have said "no." That, and the switch to QNX a few months prior, started the slide down the slippery slope.

          With a wounded brand AND an odd-ball os, what could possibly go wrong? Turns out, pretty much everything.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          You are kidding, right? They were beaten because they were arrogant. I remember the attitude they exuded when Apple announced the iPhone. I remember the arrogant advertisement when they announced their tablet....remember the 'amateur hour is over' add? They thought they were untouchable. They thought they had the golden touch. Yah, right. Apple and Android (Google) crushed them. I recently helped a relative figure out how to configure calendar reminders on their phone. I am now confused about where

        • Really? The RIM lawsuit was over and done with 8+ years ago.

          Blackberry doesn't exist today because they were about "enterprise solutions" and catered to big business and government.

          Once the iPhone was released, no one wanted clunky 1990s style phones and Blackberry didn't have a plan. And when Blackberry finally had a plan, it was a stupid plan to make their OS instead of using Android.

          Blackberry now gets to join Nokia in the club of phone companies no longer around because they didn't use Android.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by CMECC ( 610349 )
        As an example of BlackBerry making high quality phones, after my previous BlackBerry phone lasted almost 5 years, I bought a new BlackBerry Q10 a couple months ago. I have nearly no complaints about it. It's a great phone first, & a smart phone as a bonus. My Q10 gets about 2.5 times the battery life of my work-provided iPhone 5s on long conference calls. I also type much faster & more accurately on a physical keyboard. When folks see my new BlackBerry, lots of them say they still miss their Bla

  • Yeah, it's for Hal in Sales. It's his retirement gift. What? The whole company? You've gotta be kidding me. Why?

  • The Chinese have so much productive capacity that they managed to accumulate gigantic piles of cash that came from the West and obviously they can't do anything with it except buy Western businesses. This is accelerating as expected as the Chinese are trying to get rid of their foreign cash reserves in exchange for solid assets. Soon enough the equation will balance itself out, when the Chinese have all the productive assets (real capital) and the rest of the world will be supplying cheap labour.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Clsid ( 564627 )

      More like the wealthy Chinese are buying stuff overseas that is dirt cheap compared to the invetsments required to do stuff here. Plus no govt interference mostly. In most Chinese cities property prices are so ridiculously expensive that a lot of people are just buying Spanish villas, French vineyards, etc plus the old factories out there so they can export those products back to China with the so-desired foreign label that the Chinese consumer demands.

  • I don't understand the hatred. All I can think is that it's anti-Chinese bigotry.

    I've had ZERO problems with my Lenovo laptop, and it is one of the cheapest i7 models they make. It's a year and a half old at this point.

    The HP I used to have, on the other hand, was a total lemon. Within six months the wifi blew out so the motherboard blew out. Nine months later it blew out again but was no longer under warranty, so it had no wifi. By 18 months old, the hard drive had failed.

    No matter what brand y

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      No matter what brand you buy, the odds are it's "Made in China" from the cheapest parts the vendor could source.

      Actually, vendors actually do manage suppliers differently and rule out the cheapest frequently. There are companies that will do whatever is chepest no matter what, but they generally learn their lessons. For example many companies did this and counterfeit capacitors screwed them royally in terms of perception and warranty cost. The vendors that managed suppliers with a focus on quality laughed all the way to the bank.

      Also, ironically Lenovo manufactures some devices in North Carolina, USA. Two parts o

    • Most of us have moved onto Androids and iPhones, but the few people still using Blackberries are doing so because they offer security the other 2 don't. Part of that security is that it is sold by a Canadian company and Canada has had a pretty good reputation for respecting privacy and security. China has an extremely well deserved reputation of being espionage happy, this wouldn't go over well with those customers.

    • I don't generally see hatred and certainly not toward the Chinese people. It is the complex relationship between the west and the Chinese government that creates concerns. China as a nation is a great ally and we depend on China, as China depends on the west. The relationship with the Chinese government does certainly have some points in which we have become adversarial. The continued harmony of that overall relationship will be one of the key determining factors in writing of the next hundred years of hist

  • If the U.S. government will step in and prevent the sale. After all gov't here LOVES their Blackberry devices. And it wouldn't do to have the Chicom government exercising control over the construction of the phones - who knows what could slip in?

  • The Canadian government has already said they will not allow the sale of BB to the Chinese.

  • is BB still a *commodity* in the IT sector? Shouldn't have gone extinct long before Nokia?
  • Lenovo laptops suck. For some obscure reason a lot of the companies I have worked for used Lenovo laptops.
    Shitty battery life and shitty performance.
    So buying Blackberry would be a good move to bolster their shitty handset business (with another shitty handset business).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jp10558 ( 748604 )

      It's probably because the laptops don't break very often, are pretty standardized along the lines (i.e. the T510-T540, W510-W540 all use the same batteries, and the T and W series use the same power adapters within the letter series) have good warranty service and are very price competitive.

      So all good things for cost savings and reliability for a fleet of laptops.

      • Damn. You have valid points. Never had one fail on me (hardware wise, tend to brutiize windows though, so format/recover is required).

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