Lenovo’s $2.3B Server Deal With IBM Wins US Government Approval

(The News & Observer /MCT) —

Lenovo’s $2.3 billion acquisition of a line of servers from IBM, a deal that was announced in January, has been approved by the federal government.

The world’s largest PC company, which is based in China and has a headquarters in Morrisville, N.C., confirmed Friday that the IBM deal has been approved by the government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. That was the final step the company needed to win clearance from the U.S. government.

Lenovo said it remains on track to close the IBM deal and its separate, $2.9 billion purchase of Google’s Motorola handset unit by the end of the year.

“Out of respect for the confidentiality of the process, we will not have any further comment until we have met all conditions for closure,” the company stated.

Given the tensions between the U.S. and China and Lenovo’s status as a Chinese company, questions had been raised about possible national-security implications.

When the IBM deal was announced, Lenovo said the acquisition would boost its small-but-fast-growing server business by nearly tenfold, to more than $5 billion in annual sales.

The deal also calls for Lenovo to take on about 7,500 IBM employees worldwide and will nearly double the number of Lenovo employees in the Triangle, which currently stands at 2,200.

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