Troubled Canadian phonemaker BlackBerry may yet avoiding closure despite financial woes and a shrinking market share if it would accept a planned buyout offer from Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo.

The Wall Street Journal cited an unnamed source that Lenovo is considering bidding for BlackBerry. Lenovo reportedly signed a non-disclosure agreement with BlackBerry to allow the Chinese tech giant to pore over the Canadian firm's books.

Lenovo would add to the suitors of BlackBerry, including Fairfax Financial, its largest shareholder which just made a conditional takeover bid at $9 per share or $4.7 billion. Fairfax expects to finish its due diligence by Nov 4.

Also interested in acquiring back the phone firm is former co-founder Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin who jointly account for 8 per cent share, while Fairfax holds 10 per cent.

News of the planned Lenovo purchase, however, failed to stop BlackBerry shares from its further decline as the stock fell three cents to $8.39 in mid-afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Lenovo has $3.1 billion in cash as of end of June. While Lenovo Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing expressed willingness to strengthen new businesses by buying out other companies.

However, Lenovo Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai Ming clarified that "We will not buy for the sake of buying ... Even when an opportunity, on the face of it makes perfect sense for us to do it, it may not happen," quoted Bloomberg.

Like other PC makers, Lenovo is suffering from the shift in consumer preference to tablets, phablets and smartphones that likewise provide connectivity to users at lesser cost. To make up for slower sales, Lenovo is pushing its mobile devices and storage equipment and servers that run corporate networks.

Mr Wong said that Lenovo had actually expressed interest in BlackBerry as early as January 2013.

YouTube/Herb Duncan

Lenovo reached its current position as the number 1 PC producer through $2 billion worth of acquisitions in the past 8 years, including IBM's personal computer division, Germany computer maker Medion and NEC Corp.

YouTube/Lenovo

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