Lenovo plans to acquire IBM x86 server business

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA, and Armonk, NY - January 23, 2014 - Lenovo and IBM Announce Significant Agreement: Lenovo plans to acquire IBM x86 server business including System x, BladeCenter and Flex systems Flex System blade servers and switches, x86-based Flex integration systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software, blade networking and operations and maintenance. The total transaction is about 2.3 billion US dollars, of which about 2 billion US dollars will be paid in cash, the balance of Lenovo shares to pay.

IBM will retain its System z mainframes, Power Systems, storage systems, Power Architecture-based Flex servers and PureApplication application platforms, and PureData appliances.

The agreement is based on the long-term cooperation between Lenovo and Huawei in various aspects since the acquisition of IBM's global PC business in 2005, including the ThinkPad PC product line.

IBM will continue to develop and improve its portfolio of Windows and Linux software based products for the x86 platform. IBM is a leading developer of software products for the x86 market with more than a thousand products and over 10,000 software developers and service professionals focused on developing software for x86 systems.

Lenovo will enter into a strategic agreement with IBM to include an OEM and resale agreement to resell IBM's industry-leading entry and midrange Storwize, disk storage and tape storage systems, General Parallel File System software and SmartCloud Entry solutions , And IBM's portfolio of system software components, including Systems Director management servers and Platform Computing solutions.

After the transaction is completed, Lenovo will be responsible for the related customer service and maintenance of operations. IBM will provide maintenance service for customers on behalf of Lenovo for some time to come. Therefore, there will be no major change to the customer in the related maintenance support services.

Approximately 7,500 IBM employees worldwide, including Raleigh, North Carolina, and Shanghai, Shenzhen and Taipei will be hired by Lenovo.

The agreement follows IBM's recent announcement that it will invest more than $ 1 billion in the new IBM Watson Group and $ 1.2 billion to expand its global cloud computing footprint to another 40 worldwide data centers in 15 countries across five continents Major move

"This acquisition proves that Lenovo is willing to invest in businesses that will drive profitable growth and implement PC + strategy," said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Legend Group. "With the right strategy, strong execution, continuous innovation and commitment to the x86 industry "We are confident that we will achieve the long-term steady growth of this business and achieve the same success as our global PC business."

Steve Mills, IBM's senior vice president and general manager of Software and Systems Technology Group, IBM, said: "This acquisition allows IBM to focus on system and software innovations that bring new value to our strategic businesses such as cognitive computing, Data and cloud computing, etc. IBM's past excellence in innovation and business transformation enabled us to create solutions that are highly regarded by our customers. "

The transaction is subject to the approval of Lenovo shareholders and compliance with regulatory requirements and general closure conditions only to be fulfilled and is expected to be completed within the year. Local transactions will be completed in accordance with similar conditions, agreements and information and consultation processes in applicable countries.

Prior to the completion of the transaction, the independence of both companies and their existing server operations, including customer service and product sales, will remain unchanged.