Lenovo reportedly attempted to buy out BlackBerry before announcing its $2.9 billion deal to acquire Motorola Mobility from Google.
The Chinese vendor approached BlackBerry last year inquiring about a possible acquisition after BlackBerry had put itself up for sale in August, CBC Newsreported.
But when BlackBerry approached the Canadian government about a possible deal, it was told that any Chinese or Russian investments would be met with stiff opposition from lawmakers, so a potential sale was abandoned.
BlackBerry eventually nixed plans for a sell-off, instead raising cash through a debt placement to existing shareholders.
Lenovo did not give up on its smartphone ambitions, and in January arranged to buy Motorola Mobility – sans the majority of its extensive patent portfolio – from Google for $2.91 billion.
The vendor is still spending big in an attempt to break into the mobile sector to counter stagnating PC sales. Lenovo last week arranged to acquire 21 mobile patent families from Unwired Planet for $100 million.
Besides buying control of the patents, which include IP related to 3G and LTE technologies, the deal will also grant Lenovo access to Unwired Planet's wider portfolio of 2,500 patents for a number of years.