Report: Lenovo Eyes BlackBerry Maker RIM

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Lenovo Group Ltd. may be courting Research In Motion Ltd. for a potential acquisition. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Lenovo’s CFO Wong Wai Ming said that “we are looking at all opportunities — RIM and many others, [and] we’ll have no hesitation if the right opportunity comes along that could benefit us and shareholders.”

While that’s hardly a rousing endorsement, it enough to suggest Lenovo is not shy to find new ways to capitalize in the post-PC era.

Although Lenovo’s efforts with Android phones are valiant, they may not be sustainable long term. Even the fancy K900 (pictured),  is tentatively slated for a Chinese-only release, and there may be a good reason. Lenovo may feel it can’t play catch up in the Android market — Dell attempted a similar strategy and has since has dropped all smartphone and Android support entirely, an official decision made earlier last December.

With arguably one of the better reputations in the PC world today, Lenovo has the power, brand and market reach (not to mention style) that could take RIM’s enterprise-focused BlackBerry 10 products deeper into the new mobile world. And it’s clear that this PC-marker knows a post-PC world is where we’re headed. Lenovo has kept and eye on the mobility scene in a variety of ways, including a recent introduction of a Chomebook, proving the company is no-stranger to the next-gen computing market.

More importantly, Lenovo has developed an enterprise business portfolio and business division, which gives Lenovo an opportunity to bundle an true end-to-end enterprise solution that includes servers and infrastructure in the data center (with EMC) and mobile, secure and managed endpoints, all designed to work together right out of the box. That’s a powerful play not many vendors can provide today, and if the enterprise ends up clamoring for a business-centric solutions (and Microsoft Corp. continues to fumble the ball), this could be one of Lenovo’s smartest moves yet.

No major plans are yet in motion. Forbes reports that Lenovo’s team has discussed high level plans and financials but nothing official has solidified. Lenovo is smart to play this slow, especially if it worries that — despite its own influence — the reception of BlackBerry 10 will be less than stellar. So like most of the world, Lenovo will still have to to wait and see if RIM can deliver. There’s no question than this is RIM’s last stand, and the last thing a lean and growing Lenovo needs is dragging vestige of a once-great handset maker.