Lenovo Group

This article is about the computer company, Lenovo Group. For the village in Bulgaria, see Plovdiv Oblast (district).

Lenovo Group Limited (), formerly known as Legend Group Ltd and New Technology Developer Incorporated (), is the largest personal computer manufacturer in the People's Republic of China, and as of 2004 is the third largest in the world (ninth before purchase of IBM's PC Division). The original company was founded in 1984 by a group of eleven engineers headed by Liu Chuanzhi in Beijing, but the listed holding company was incorporated in 1988 in Hong Kong, now a Special Administrative Region of China. Its headquarters are in Purchase, New York, in the United States. However, the company plans to move its headquarters to Raleigh, North Carolina, the home of IBM's former ThinkPad group.

"Lenovo" is a portmanteau word formed of "Le-" (from Legend) and "novo", pseudo-Latin for "new."

Along with desktop and laptop computers, Lenovo sells servers, handheld computers, imaging equipment, and mobile phone handsets. Lenovo also provides information technology integration and support services, and its QDI unit offers contract manufacturing. Hoping to reach the many Chinese not yet online, Lenovo also offers Internet access through its FM365.com portal.

Lenovo is the subject of a book, "The Lenovo Affair: The Growth of China's Computer Giant and its Takeover of IBM-PC", by journalist Ling Zhijun, published 23 June 2006 by John Wiley & Sons.

History

Purchase of IBM PC Division

Lenovo was relatively unknown outside China, but made news headlines in December 2004 with the announcement of its intent to acquire the PC division of IBM. Lenovo hoped to expand into Western markets to become the third largest PC manufacturer worldwide. Prior to the acquisition, Lenovo already controlled twenty-five percent of the Asian market, largely due to its ability to sell computers at value prices and China's high tariffs on imports. Lenovo paid $1.25 billion to IBM, splitting into $650 million cash and $600 million Lenovo stock.

On March 9 2005, it was announced that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States had completed its review of the deal. IBM and Lenovo completed the deal on May 1, 2005. As a result of the acquisition, Lenovo's product line includes the ThinkVision, ThinkPad, ThinkVantage, ThinkCentre, Aptiva, and NetVista. As of May 1, 2005 35.2% of Lenovo was owned by public shareholders, 45.9% by Legend Holdings Limited, and 18.9% by IBM.

Linux

IBM had supported and promoted Linux for many years, and ThinkPads in particular were popular with Linux users, so concern was raised^* in early June 2006 by widely reported comments that: "We will not have models available for Linux, and we do not have custom order, either. What you see is what you get. And at this point, it's Windows." by Lenovo's worldwide product manager for the Lenovo 3000 (consumer focussed) offerings.

Later reports however ^* ^*, make it clear that there has been little change - i.e. in the retail area Linux won't be provided or recommended, but corporate customers can request a Linux pre-load, and behind the scenes, Linux support should remain above average.

Financial Information

Competitors

Lenovo competes with computer manufacturers such as Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, and Toshiba among others.

Products

Lenovo makes a variety of products for sale in the United States, both under its own name and IBM's. These products include:

IBM ThinkCentre desktops
Lenovo 3000 J Series desktops
IBM ThinkPad laptops and tablets
Lenovo 3000 C Series laptops
LCD and CRT monitors
IBM ThinkVision projectors

External links

References

Computer hardware companies | Companies of the People's Republic of China | 1988 establishments

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