InfoWorld: Top News reports that China’s Lenovo to buy IBM’s PC business. “TOKYO – China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. signed a definitive agreement on Wednesday to acquire IBM Corp.’s personal computing division. Lenovo will pay US$1.25 billion in cash for the business, which is expected to transform it into the world’s number three PC maker, the companies announced.”
This is certainly a worry for those of us who depend on the reliability and ruggedness of our ThinkPads. While the manufacture of the machines has been outsourced for years, the responsibility has always fallen to the company with those three letters on the case: IBM. Expect a conservative IT market to shy away from the machines for a while. With luck, the spinoff can be as successful as the Lexmark deal.
Follow-up: A news.com editorial opines “Why Lenovo-IBM is a tough sell“