Lenovo CFO Wong Waiming last week suggested that the Chinese company was open to the idea of acquiring Research In Motion in an effort to grow its mobile business as PC sales slow down. A statement sent to TheNextWeb by the company today suggests that certain statements may have been taken out context during the Bloomberg interview. Lenovo explains that Waiming’s comments were meant to be more general in scope:
In general, we do not comment on M&A rumors or speculation.
We are aware that Lenovo’s CFO [Wong] 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.
With RIM open to various options to “create new opportunities, focusing on areas where we will be more effective partnering rather than going it alone, and ultimately maximizing value for all stakeholders,” it is likely that some level of discussion is happening or has happened between interested parties (including Lenovo). Such talks are likely on the backburner this week as RIM prepares to launch its BlackBerry 10 devices on Wednesday.
Read more: TheNextWeb
Lenovo today unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the Lenovo K900. It’s unlike most of the flagship devices being unveiled this week as CES 2013 unfolds. It does not sport a quad-core processor but will be among if not the first to use Intel’s first dual-core Atom chip for phones. It will also not sport a 5-inch FHD display but rather a 5.5-inch FHD one.
Lenovo appears to be eyeing the U.S. smartphone market. Asked if the company planned to launch a phone in the United States, David Schmoock, a Lenovo senior executive, responded, “I think we will.” What is not so clear is when this could happen but it could still be a few years away.
The ASUS Transformer tablets are about to get some competition. Lenovo has unveiled the IdeaTab S2 10 tablet with a a detachable keyboard dock. Here is what we know so far:
The same week that Lenovo introduced a new Android smartphone, the Lenovo LePhone S2, for the Chinese market, it also confirmed plans to support another mobile operating system in future products. In an interview with Chinese blog iMobile, Lenovo product manager Chen Yue confirmed that the company will launch a Windows Phone device in the second half of 2012. He revealed no details about specifications of the new devices.
