Lenovo keen to finalize $5b deals by year-end

Lenovo Group yesterday said it plans to complete two acquisitions with a combined value of more than $5 billion before the end of this year.

The targets are IBM Corp's low-end server unit for $2.3 billion and Google Inc's Motorola Mobility business for $2.9 billion, Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said at the company's annual general meeting in Hong Kong.

The two deals are pending approval from regulators in China and the United States, but "we hope to complete both by the year-end," he said.

The purchase of the IBM unit has been in limbo while the US government investigates national security issues, the Wall Street Journal reported last week.

However, Yang said yesterday: "The US government ... and US Army are our clients. There have been no issues and we will keep this tradition."

Lenovo, which recently overtook Hewlett-Packard to become the world's No. 1 PC maker, booked a net profit of $817 million in the fiscal year ended in March, up 28.7 percent. Its revenue for the period gained 14.3 percent to $38.7 billion.

The Motorola Mobility deal will lift Lenovo from fifth to third in the smartphone retail sector, and position it to challenge market leaders Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics, analysts said.