On May 1st, Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) marked the 10-year anniversary of its acquisition of IBM’s PC business a major milestone in its evolution from China-only PC maker, to global PC challenger, to where it is today: one of the world’s most innovative technology companies.
Over the past decade, Lenovo has achieved tremendous growth in its business to become the world’s #1 PC maker, and #3 in smartphones, #3 in tablets, and #3 in x86 servers.
Lenovo marks this milestone in advance of Lenovo Tech World on May 28 in Beijing, the company’s first strategic global technology conference, where it will outline its vision of future devices, including smartphones, wearables and smart connected devices and demonstrate R&D concept projects.
“The acquisition of IBM’s PC business transformed Lenovo overnight into a truly global company, changing not only Lenovo but our industry,” said Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO, Lenovo. “Since then, we have overcome many challenges – and many doubters – to become the world’s leading PC company and one of the world’s most innovative personal technology companies. Even more, this acquisition built the foundation for our expansion to new products like smartphones, tablets, servers and now our ecosystem, growth engines fueled by the success of our first big deal.”
A Decade of Success
Prior to its acquisition of IBM’s PC business in 2005, Lenovo ranked #9 in the worldwide PC industry with 2.3 percent market share and annual revenue of just $3 billion. Fast forward to 2015 and Lenovo has risen to become #1 in worldwide PCs with market share at 20% and revenue growing roughly thirteen-fold over the past ten years to $39 billion.
Notably, the IBM PC acquisition and its growth gave Lenovo the fuel to accelerate its expansion which today encompasses three growth engines with global scale: PC, mobile and enterprise. No other company can match this diversity. Following the successful IBM PC acquisition, Lenovo has made eight successful acquisitions, priming the company for future advances in high-growth and high-revenue markets.
“In the ten years since Lenovo acquired IBM’s PC business, Lenovo has grown from a $3 billion company whose interests were mostly in China, to the $39 billion global technology leader that Lenovo is today,” said William O. Grabe, Lenovo board member and advisory director, General Atlantic, an original investor in Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s PC business. “Lenovo‘s decade of success was achieved through a continued focus on profitable growth, strong execution by the Lenovo leadership team led by Yang Yuanqing, and the hard work of the tens of thousands of Lenovo employees around-the-world. I look forward to Lenovo’s next decade of growth.”
Here’s a snapshot of some of the defining moments in Lenovo’s history over the past ten years:
· 100 million ThinkPad laptops sold (2015)
· Completed the acquisition of Motorola Mobility and IBM X86 businesses and launched multimode YOGA Tablet 2 Pro with built-in projector (2014)
· Became #1 PC-maker worldwide; started selling smartphones outside of China; and introduced interpersonal computing with Horizon table PC (2013)
· Launched YOGA multimode PC (2012)
· Entered into JV with EMC and acquired Stoneware and CCE (2012)
· Created JV with NEC and Compal and acquired Medion (2011)
· Sponsored Beijing Olympics delivering 20,000 pieces of infrastructure and hardware; entered global consumer laptop and desktop markets; built ThinkPad X300, which BusinessWeek called “the best laptop ever” (2008)
· Launched first Lenovo-branded PCs worldwide (2006)
· Acquired IBM’s PC business, including ThinkPad (2005)
Since completing its acquisition of IBM’s PC business, Lenovo has invested heavily in research and development, leading to the expansion of the Think brand into new product categories such as workstations and servers as well as new commercial designs and innovations including tablets and convertibles. Also during this time period, Think-branded products have won more than 2,600 design and product awards.
Follow the conversation on social media @lenovo #DecadeofInnovation.
