BlackBerry Wants A Buyer In Time For Thanksgiving (BBRY)

Turkey, stuffing and new game consoles are not the only things that are expected to be sold during the holiday shopping season. If BlackBerry BBRY has its way, the Canadian smartphone maker will find a buyer -- and wrap up its auction process -- by November. According to The Wall Street Journal, many financial players in the U.S. and Canada are interested in a possible bid for BlackBerry, including Bain Capital and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Chinese powerhouse Lenovo LNVGY is also on the list of potential buyers. BlackBerry buyout rumors have continued to escalate in the days following Microsoft's MSFT purchase of Nokia's NOK handset business. In fact, some rumors suggest that Microsoft may be the one that ultimately acquires BlackBerry. Related: BlackBerry Patents Could Power Future iPhones, Android Or Windows Devices In terms of its size, scope and financial power, Microsoft could be the most favorable company to BlackBerry Board members. The word on the street is that BlackBerry wants a Google-type GOOG company to come to the rescue, similar to the way Motorola was rescued last year. It took Google more than 12 months to release its first Motorola phone after the acquisition was complete. Though Motorola had released other products in the interim, none of them were developed with Google's full support. That first product ended up being the Moto X, a uniquely customizable smartphone that is being assembled in the United States. Google has so much faith in the product that it might spend as much as $500 million to promote the Moto X worldwide. That could make it one of the largest marketing campaigns ever assigned to one device. By comparison, Apple AAPL spent $307.7 million to promote its entire product line during the 2011 fiscal year. Microsoft reportedly spent $400 million to promote the launch of Windows 8. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ