Lenovo and RIM play it cool over buy-out quotes

The tech world was aflutter at the prospect of Lenovo mulling a bid for RIM's BlackBerry business last week, but it may have been a storm in a teacup.

It turns out that when Lenovo's CFO Wong Wai Ming told Bloomberg that, "We are looking at all opportunities - RIM and many others" he didn't really mean that a RIM buy-out was on the cards.

The company has issued a statement to clarify that Ming was "speaking broadly about M&A [mergers and acquisitions] strategy" and that it doesn't comment on speculation such as this.

There's always a but

However, today's statement also reiterated that Lenovo is "very focused on growing its business, both organically and through M&A", presumably standing by Ming's comment that Lenovo would go for RIM "if the right opportunity comes along".

So it's not so much as a no as a maybe - and RIM's playing it cool too, adding in its own statement in reaction to the rumours that it is continuing "to examine all available options" although it has nothing new to add at this time.

To sum up: Lenovo might buy RIM, it might not. Carry on.