“Sale of IBM’s x86 server branch to Lenovo is in doubt”

The sale to Lenovo of IBM’s division that makes x86 servers is in doubt, according to an American business newspaper. The US government is said to be concerned about homeland security. Lenovo is a Chinese company.

The US government is said to be concerned that after the takeover the Chinese government will gain access to servers used in US communications networks and the Ministry of Defense, among others. That reported business newspaper The Wall Street Journal. To allay concerns, IBM would like to promise that it will temporarily support the servers on behalf of Lenovo after the period.

Lenovo is a Chinese company and is not the first to be criticized by the US government for espionage. The US previously focused on Huawei, which, in addition to telephones, also supplies network equipment that can be used by telecom providers, for example. The company would cooperate in espionage by the Chinese government; Huawei itself denies that.

Lenovo announced in January that it plans to acquire IBM’s x86 server arm for approximately $1.7 billion. In 2005 Lenovo already took over the PC branch of IBM, which includes the ThinkPad product range.