A Nokia Lumia smartphone brought to you by Huawei? The idea might seem preposterous, but Richard Yu — chairman of the Chinese manufacturer's consumer business unit — says his company is "considering" such acquisitions. "Maybe the combination has some synergies," Yu told The Financial Times. Of course, he quickly clarified that any deal hinges on Nokia's willingness to be bought out. "We are open-minded," Yu said. Nokia's stock jumped upward as news of the executive's unprompted remarks spread. The struggling handset maker has given no indication it's for sale, however. In fact, Nokia is in the midst of a significant hardware push, having just released the Lumia 925 and Lumia 928; an "EOS" Windows Phone featuring a 41-megapixel camera is also reportedly in the pipe.

Still, Yu suggests Nokia shouldn't be dismissive of a potential buyout. "Whether Windows Phone [will be] successful is hard to say," he said, going on to describe the third-place OS as "weak." One likely reason for this, the chairman suggested, is the fee associated with licensing Microsoft's Windows Phone software, highlighting out Android's "free" nature as a significant differentiator between the two.

Update: Huawei has told Reuters that it "has no plans" to acquire Nokia, though the company stops short of denying it's considered the idea.