Lenovo acquires majority stake in Fujitsu’s PC business

Lenovo has acquired a 51 percent stake in Fujitsu’s PC business, which also sold a 5 percent stake to a Japanese bank. The three parties want to use the resulting joint venture to develop and sell PCs.

Lenovo reports that the collaboration will focus on research, development, design, manufacturing and sales of client computing devices, such as laptops and desktops. The acquisition involves a converted amount of at least 134 million euros; Lenovo will pay a higher amount if the Fujitsu division achieves good results. The division in question, Fujitsu Client Computing, currently has 1,128 employees and is based in Japan. The products will continue to be sold under the Fujitsu name.

According to Reuters, the acquisition will allow Lenovo to compete with HP. That manufacturer took the position of largest PC maker this year at the expense of Lenovo. According to CEO Yang Yuanqing, PCs are still the core business of the Chinese company. In August, there were reports that Fujitsu plans to sell its telephone business as well. At the time, Lenovo was named as one of the interested parties, alongside Huawei and Foxconn. Fujitsu split off its telephone business two years ago, allowing it to sell that division separately. The branch that remained focuses on PCs.

The news agency also reports that Lenovo’s market share in the PC market has fallen by 0.2 percentage points to 21 percent in the past six months. Gartner data shows that PC shipments have declined steadily over the past 12 quarters.