A summer full of negative news for Sino-foreign trade relations got a rare piece of positive news over the weekend, with word that the US has approved the sale of IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) low-end server business to Chinese PC giant Lenovo (HKEx: 992). The case looks a bit like another deal between the pair of tech giants nearly a decade ago, when IBM agreed to sell its high-profile PC business to Lenovo, only to see the deal run into political headwinds before finally getting approved by Washington. But this latest approval is slightly different, as it comes against a backdrop of heightened trade and other national security tensions between China and the west, especially from the US. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on August 16-18. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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US Approves Sale Of IBM (NYSE: IBM) x86 Server Unit To Lenovo (HKEx: 992) (Businesswire)
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Begins Storing Users’ Personal Data On Servers In China (English article)
Chinese workers who quit their jobs at IBM (NYSE: IBM) this spring rather than take new positions at Lenovo (HKEx: 992) under an M&A deal may be regretting their decision, with word that the deal may derail due to US national security concerns. Of course I’m being just a tad facetious with my comment about the former IBM workers, but I’m quite serious about the doubts that are suddenly swirling around the deal announced early this year for IBM to sell its low-end server business to Lenovo. The latest reports are a bit more neutral, though I would now give the deal just a 50 percent chance of getting clearance from the US national security regulator. Read Full Post…
While reading reports about Lenovo’s (HKEx: 992) new blockbuster deal to buy IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) low-end server business for $2.3 billion, I felt a strange and unusual lack of enthusiasm from Lenovo’s usually upbeat Chairman Yang Yuanqing. Yang never met a reporter he didn’t like, and he loves to talk about Lenovo’s big hopes and dreams at every opportunity he can get. Yet in the reports I read, this talkative chief executive was decidedly low-key and not extremely bullish on this new mega-deal, his company’s largest and the biggest ever tech acquisition by a Chinese firm. Perhaps that’s because he senses trouble ahead as his company tries to integrate and promote a business whose slowing growth was the main reason IBM desperately wanted to sell the unit. Read Full Post…
