Lenovo Group Limited ( sehk: 0992, OTCBB: LNVGY) is China's largest and the world's fourth largest personal computer manufacturer, after Hewlett-Packard and Dell of the U.S. and Acer of Taiwan..

Lenovo produces desktops, laptops, 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. Lenovo also offers Internet access through its FM365.com portal.

Its executive headquarters are located in Beijing, China and in Morrisville, North Carolina, USA. It is incorporated in Hong Kong.

Products

Lenovo makes a variety of products for world wide sale. These products include:

• Lenovo ThinkCentre desktops
• Lenovo ThinkPad laptops and tablets
• Lenovo ThinkStation workstations
• IdeaCentre desktops
• IdeaPad consumer-oriented laptops
• Lenovo 3000 J Series desktops
• Lenovo 3000 C, N and V Series laptops
• LCD and CRT monitors
• ThinkVision projectors

Ownership

As of February 29, 2008, 44.4% of Lenovo is owned by public shareholders, 41.8% by Legend Holdings Limited, 6.7% by IBM, 6.5% by Texas Pacific Group, General Atlantic LLC and Newbridge Capital LLC and 0.6 by the directors. Because the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Chinese government agency, owns 65% of Legend Holdings, effectively the Chinese government owns about 27.17% of Lenovo and is the largest shareholder.

Origins

The company was founded in 1984 by a group of eleven engineers, headed by Liu Chuanzhi, in Beijing. Originally known as Legend Group Ltd and New Technology Developer Incorporated, the listed holding company was incorporated in 1988 in Hong Kong. The company had become the biggest PC manufacturer of domestic and distributed third party products through its wholesale business.

The company underwent restructuring and separated into two entities. They were Lenovo and Digital China Holdings Limited. Lenovo became the personal computer manufacturer and Digital China took on the wholesale and distribution of IT products and services.

In 2005 Lenovo purchased IBM's PC Division which transformed it into a major international personal computer manufacturer. Lenovo paid $1.27 billion to IBM which consisted of $655 million in cash and $600 million in Lenovo stock. As a result of the acquisition, Lenovo gained the rights to the product lines as well as licensed trademarks such as ThinkVision, ThinkPad, ThinkVantage, ThinkCentre, Aptiva, and NetVista.

1980s

• 1981: International Business Machines introduces the IBM Personal Computer, built by the IBM Entry Systems Division, in Boca Raton, Florida.