Rumors Continue to Circulate as Controversial Lenova Signs NDA to See Blackberry's Financials

Rumors continue to circulate around the Canadian smartphone company

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is rumored to be actively considering a bid for the Blackberry entity. Although Lenova has not made a formal announcement regarding a nondisclosure agreement and spokesmen from both smartphone makers did not comment on the development, Lenova signed a NDA to gain access to Blackberry's financials. If this foreign deal goes through, it would face government scrutiny in North America and be one of the largest acquisitions of Western Company by a Chinese company. A bid exceeding $344M (CDN) must pass a government review to analyze security risk and must generate an economic benefit. Blackberry smartphones continue to be used by the U.S. government including the Defense Department. Last week, Canada rejected a bid from Egyptian telecom entrepreneur Naguib Sawiris to buy a division of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. with concerns over national security. Previous potential bids for Blackberry include Cerberus Capital Management LP, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, Cisco

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. A potential takeover by Blackberry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin was announced on October 10th. Blackberry closed at 8.20 on Thursday.