BlackBerry put itself up for sale in August 2013. The move generated a lot of interest from a range of parties including Facebook, Google, Cisco Systems, China’s Lenovo and even RIM’s own co-founders, the company eventually had to settle for a US$1 billion investment in the form of convertible debentures by Fairfax Financial Holdings. According to CBC News, rumours that Lenovo was looking to buy BlackBerry were indeed true. It turns out that any such deal was “quickly and quietly killed” when the Canadian government told the company it would not support the BlackBerry sale to Lenovo.
The Canadian government instead turned around and helped BlackBerry by providing it with a US$696 million (about CA$767 million) remission order, effectively an early payment on part of its tax refund. BlackBerry still expects to receive the remainder, another US$170 million (about CA$187 million), later this year.
The CBC News report echoes similar a similar one by The Globe and Mail last November. That publication reported back then that the Canadian government had made it clear to BlackBerry that it would not approve any deal whereby a Chinese company would acquire BlackBerry due to national security concerns.
The Lenovo decision is not the only example of the Canadian government blocking deals over real or perceived threats to national security. It also blocked a bid by Accelero Capital Holdings to buy MTS Allstream‘s national fibre-optic network last October. Accelero is a company headed up by Naguib Sawiris who was previously involved in the launch of WIND Mobile in Canada.
Sources : CBC News // The Globe and Mail