Lenovo said to harbour continued interest in BlackBerry

China’s Lenovo is rumoured to be eying a takeover bid for BlackBerry. The rumours first emerged earlier this year, but now that BlackBerry is formally up for sale, Lenovo is said to be actively considering a bid.

Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal said that Lenovo has signed a non-disclosure agreement with BlackBerry allowing it access to the company’s accounts.

Lenovo already owns a smartphone business of its own, and could consider merging the two operations to strip out costs – or retain its own Chinese focused division and use BlackBerry brand to expand its market as it did with the IBM laptop deal in the past.

Both companies declined to comment on the report.

BlackBerry has already agreed to an in-principle deal to be bought out by a consortium of private equity groups in a US$4.7 billion deal, but that agreement allows it to consider alternative bids.

An offer from Lenovo would be subject to regulatory checks, and the Canadian government has been more cautious in recent months about foreign takeover bids for local firms. However, the government did indicate earlier this year that it would not step in to save the ailing smartphone manufacturer.