What is Lenovo

Headquarters in China, Lenovo is a technology company founded by Liu Chuanzhi in 1984. Incorporated in 1988, the company was initially name ‘Legend’ and continued to operate under the same brand name for close to two decades. In 2002, the name was changed to Lenovo to expand its global presence. The company covers a wide spectrum of technology products — personal computers to notebooks, tablets, smartphones, workstations, servers, electronic storage devices, information technology management software and smart wearables.

 

Since its inception, the company has made several acquisitions to get access to the global market. In 2005, it acquired American information technology company IBM's personal computer business. This acquisition made Lenovo the third-largest computer maker worldwide by volume. In 2014, the company also acquired IBM’s Intel-based server business with the aim to become the world’s largest server maker. 

 

In 2011, the company formed a joint venture with Japanese electronics manufacturer NEC to produce personal computers. Named Lenovo NEC Holdings, this joint venture was formed to strengthen Lenovo's global sales by expanding its presence in Japan, a key market for personal computers.

 

In 2014, the company proposed to acquire Motorola Mobility business for $2.91 billion from Google. The deal included Motorola’s Moto and Droid smartphone series. Though Google retained Motorola’s advance technology and project units, along with several patents, Lenovo received royalty-free licences to use all the patents retained by Google. The acquisition deal was finalised on October 30, 2014. While the Motorola Mobility headquarters remain in Chicago and the company continues to use the Motorola brand, Lenovo named its mobile device business president Liu Jun the new leader.

 

Besides products, Lenovo also offers a suite of software and services. These include the REACHit storage management application, the SHAREit wireless data transfer tool, the WRITEit handwriting recognition engine, the SECUREit mobile protection software, the SYNCit call log and contact information backup service, the SNAPit camera, and the SEEit gallery for smartphones. The company also has a wireless roaming service called Lenovo Connect. It works across devices, networks, and international borders in China, Europe, West Asia, and Africa.