IBM has sold it’s PC unit to Chinese computer maker Levono on Tuesday. The deal is valued at $1.75 billion. Here’s the word from IBM itself. In a press release, IBM says this deal will create the world’s third-largest PC business.
It’s Official: IBM Sells PC Unit
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Is this good or bad? What kind of impact(if any) is it going to have on IBMs business?
Oh stupid Chinese company. This is great for IBM but the same cannot be said for the buyer.
History in the making right now.
Dell is going to be in a world of hurt.
The Chinese will put out cheaper PCs than Dell. LG CD-RW anyone?
how the great have fallen
If we’re unlucky that was as good as laptops got…in a while at least.
Alas.. but we still have Powerbooks from Apple.
I dont think so. Thinkpad is the #1 laptop in corporate enviroments. I doubt it is going anywhere.
It’s a sad day indeed if that is true… 🙁
So let me get this straight…IBM will still sell PC’s, they will just be supplied through Levono?
And IBM will still do their own warranty & tech support?
Read it here
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/07/ibm_pc_sell_off_power/>i…
maybe we are seeing the end of x86..
>>Oh stupid Chinese company. This is great for IBM but the same cannot be said for the buyer.
Why. IBM can now focused in what they have always wanted. History: IBM never believed in PCs. Do not forget that. They were pushed by the marked. The chinese company. Well, they were number 11 worldwide. Now they have worldwide reach, and the american market. How is this bad for both of them?
Infamous IBM quotes:
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
– Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
“But what… is it good for ?”
– An engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip in 1968
I guess they were right.
Just wondering. What would had happened if a Linux Software company had acquired IBM PC Division (I guess Red hat or Novell are the only ones with enough resources). Do not know if possible, economy is not my friend. But can you imagine IBM PCs with linux only and not windows (Apple style). Just wondering.
SOMETIMES THE BEST WAY TO WIN THE GAME
IS PLAY THE GAME TOGETHER.
…
grammatically incorrect……….
Sun could have done it. I don’t think Redhat could, but maybe. Redhat would(at the very least) be betting the farm on this deal if they tried to buy it.
All I care about is the Thinkpad, what is their future?
Have you looked at lenovo’s financials? They suck. They will take IBM’s PC business and make it into crap. They had some huge decline in revenue and people are saying it’s inivitable that chinese computers will take over, whatever… I mean look the chinese government is the only investor keeping this compan afloat at this time. let’s not forget how the chinese government controls the value of their currency more so than other countries..
Lenovo will take this business and fail with it, it looks like the only reason they did this was to stay alive!
bad bad IBM. Shame on you! I hope you miserably fail.
IBM sells it’s PC business to some obscure Chinese company that even my geeky ass has never heard of. The Battle to win the wallets of the masses will continue to go downhill until the day they start making literally pennies per unit, if that hasn’t happened already. I feel sorry for any poor schlub that’s in the commodity PC business, because I can’t think of one other industry that has competition this fierce.
I always thought IBM desktop machines look like crap plastic boxes. So what if the keyboard was superb.
The thing that amazes me, is this headlong stupid rush to China by all the Western so-called “Captains of Industry” for want of a better term. What benefit to us to ship out whole steel factories and re-assemble them in China? Why do we express surprise that in a few weeks time, no doubt IBM will announce more job losses, just like every other western country.
Rush to China, cut jobs, show a great set of figures next quarter!!
Wow what stupidity. Incredible.
Now it becomes absolutely clear why IBM dropped OS/2, too, when they had the real power to play along with Windows — if they wanted. Previous CEO Lou Gerstner de-emphasized the PC back in 1998, and IBM started simply pursuing higher profit margins exclusively — it’s nothing personal to the PC, just money, money, money. All their talk about PC’s going down, etc. is nonsense to make us believe this is some kind of amazing insight and strategy on the part of IBM — they simply cut their expenses and at the same time relocate their PC people in the US to higher-profit markets. I would most of those PC people won’t get canned.
In case you missed:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/07/ibm_pc_sell_off_power/
http://power.org/
Regards,
Karel Miklav
the line should read, “IBM has sold ITS”
there is no appostrophe. Right now, it reads, “IBM has sold it is”
🙂
ibm is not giving up the desktop, cell will take it all.
Has anyone of you ever seen a Lenovo computer up close? Heck, has anyone of you seen or use desktops and laptops from Lenovo, Haier, and TCL (all Chinese). I have and I can tell you they are AT PAR with the Dells, the HP Compaq’s and the IBM’s in performance, reliability, and aesthetics (I think Haiers are too damn pretty, same for Lenovo laptops). And they are A LOT CHEAPER TOO.
My problem with them? There is no effin’ English documentation! Grrrrrr! That’s about it (yeah, quite major), so don’t write them off just because they’re Chinese because they can compete with the best of them (in price/performance and even aesthetics).
Anyway, both companies see this arrangement as a step towards their objectives and both expect to benefit from the agreement. Er, I really mean upper management from both companies, those individuals with $200K plus salaries because of their proven abilities.
Of course, we at the lower rungs of the food chain know better don’t we? Don’t we? That’s why we’ve been scrapin our a**es off for years, because we’re just so darn able.
[pardon the sarcasm, it’s been a looooong day]
See here:
http://tech.sina.com.cn/focus/IBM_sell_icpp/index.shtml
Thanks for the TheRegister link, Karel.
China must expand it’s reach in the global economy (in order to bear it’s strength on the economy), and IBM is a great choice to work with, and ultimately it’s good for the customer (and investor!).
IBM is a bridge to a competitive computer industry, they did this for Linux, now they are doing it for the PC.
The key it seems to this deal is seamless integration, and the prospect for future growth in not only PC sales but any artifact that these organizations want to develop. I see potential (as a customer) in a new market for example in robotic companion toys (robosapien). I still see the PC playing a central role in any electronic device of the future.
IBM has made inroads into China (that is a miracle) and Japan (another miracle). I’d much rather see this type of world peace (through business) than war. I still think that there are too many people in China and Japan though!
The miracle with Japan is an American or Chineese owned factory on Japans soil (if I read right).
These is a few things you guys might want to know.
1.levono is the #1 PC(desktop and laptop) maker/seller in China
2.levono is THE ONLY computer equipment provider and biggest sponsor of the 2008 Olympic Game(in China too, in case some geeks don’t read sport news.)
3.IBM is selling their PC department for a looooong time. The finally found one who is buying it, good for IBM.
…and, yes, I am chinese.
I’d also like to say that although there are IT companies out there with a lot of muscle in their given area; Dell (PC’s) and Microsoft (Software). There is no company like IBM, a company who has the future in it’s hands. Strength alone is not enough to move forward, you need the eyes and the ears of leadership to define the goals of the industry. I don’t care how much economic power you have, because without a purpose, money does not work in order to solve problems and make life more enjoyable. I expect IBM to make breakthroughs and than to help other companies shift to new markets and stablize on new profit. When you deal with IBM you are investing the in the future.
http://www.lenovogrp.com/cgi-bin/main.cgi?section=press&sub_section…
“our unwavering goal has been to create a truly international enterprise” — From Lenovo Group Press Release.
Do Lenovo know who buy IBM PC? Corporate!
The corporate buy IBM PC/Notepad, because they are using IBM mainframe, mini and Unix. They belived single source have better service and price! Now, the “IBM PC” no longer owned by IBM. They will buy Dell, HP etc…
Do Lenove know why they cannot and will not become a “truly international enterpries”?
1. poor quality
2. Poor Design
3. No after-sell service
Those are common problems for China companies.
What I see is another CIA/IBM created “foot-in-the-door” for MS continued dominance in the consumer PC/electronics area. Yes, IBM does operate upstream from MS, they don’t compete. The money people own large chunks of both companies, and with this deal, a good size chunk of the emerging Chinese PC market. The idea that IBM would merge with Apple is not unreasonable given that Mac users are mostly pros, which would represent logical user base expansion for IBM.
>
Infamous IBM quotes:
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”
– Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
<
I think the president of DEC was once quoted for asking something like: “why would anybody want a computer in their home?”
And of course bill gates once asked something like: “why would anybody need more than 640K?”
Alas.. but we still have Powerbooks from Apple.
Unfortunately Powerbooks are not as durable as Thinkpads.
In my experience a Thinkpads have at least twice the expected lifetime of any Apple powerbook. But Apple have excellent design though.
* IBM holds a 20% interest in Lenovo
* The IBM Thinkpads were already made in a Chinese fab.
* IBM and Apple merge, what for? Apple just buys their processors via IBM as do others (just like Genesi, Sony, Microsoft). They’re a customer. Apple has problems getting into the corporate markets while there’s demand for non-x86, non-Windows computers for the obvious reasons (evaded, to evade flamewar. You know my opinion…). Which means Apple and IBM could just as well raise a deal where IBM resells Apple products.
I certainly hope IBM will invest more in POWER now, but the stakes are high. They’re at least not burdened by Microsoft OEM contracts anymore now.
>> “Do Lenovo know who buy IBM PC? Corporate!”
I buy IBM. I have used IBM PC’s for years, since the days of the original PC and PCjr. Currently using a NetVista. Not all buyers are corporate.
Levono is a Chinese company and partially bank-rolled by the Chinese government. The Chinese government is very anti-Microsoft (for good reason – they’re distrustful of closed source software from the west), and very pro Linux (again, for good reason – it’s open source). So perhaps we might see Thinkpads (and IBM PCs) shipped with Linux pre-installed (finally). Levono won’t be concerned about pissing off MS because MS needs to sdo some serious butt-kissing to make inroads into China.
It’s a “win-win-win-lose” situation! 😉 …. win for Levono, win for IBM, win for Linux, loss for MS!
History in the making right now.
Indeed. The founder of the PC era has exitted the PC era. Technology history books will mark this day.
Not Levono, Is Lenovo[len’nouvou] legend+novo
>* The IBM Thinkpads were already made in a Chinese fab.
FYI, in fact, Apple too (In Dong Guan, China).
That’s Guandong (or Guan Dong if you prefer)
RE:That’s Guandong (or Guan Dong if you prefer)
Oh come on,cjk is right, Dong Guan is a city in Guangdong(Canton) Provice;)
Oh I see, because they have never succeeded in this business, they sell it as a lame duck to a sucker company and HP and Dell will be the main winners. You have a good point, they all source the equipment from the same places and stick their badges on…….
In that case well done IBM!
Perhaps my earlier post about Levono incorporating Linux was not a pipe dream.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5484188.html
Perhaps it will be Solaris JDS, but more likely it will be Linux based, due to driver support.
McNealy shoots his mouth off all the time, but Sun is in desparate times and I can believe him wholeheartedly that he’s going to try to OEM JDS through Levono.
This is great stuff, for everyone except MS. 🙂
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/Lenovo-Joins-in-Linux-Push-38793….
Lenovo is already teaming up with a Chinese Linux integrator.
Thinkpads with Linux pre-installed are on the way! 😉