
Last month, BlackBerry reached a preliminary USD 4.7 billion buyout deal with Fairfax Financial Holdings, one of its largest shareholders. Others that have been considering BlackBerry bids include Cerberus Capital Management, which has also signed a non-disclosure agreement to look at the company's books, and BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, who recently disclosed their interest in a public filing.
China-based Lenovo is already bigger than BlackBerry in the smartphone market, accounting for 4.7 percent of global sales in Q2 versus 2.7 percent for BlackBerry, according to Gartner.