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Lenovo to drop IBM brand

Peter Judge ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 02 Nov 2007 17:22 GMT

Lenovo plans to stop using the IBM logo on its products, with a complete switchover before next summer's Beijing Olympics.

The Chinese company bought IBM's PC business three years ago and is currently the fourth-largest PC maker in the world. It always planned to phase out the IBM brand, but is dropping it quicker than planned because it has done better than expected in the market, according to the company's chief executive.

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"By making substantial progress on all of our critical priorities over the past few quarters, we're now a stronger, healthier company," said William Amelio, chief executive of Lenovo, in a press announcement relating to its quarterly results. The company made $4.4bn (£2.2bn) quarterly revenue, an increase of 20 percent on the previous year, with profits nearly tripled at $105m (£50m). "One important sign of this progress is our decision to completely transition our Think products from the IBM brand to the Lenovo brand two years earlier than planned."

IBM's flagship laptop, Thinkpad, celebrated 15 years in the industry this year, despite dropping from third place to fourth behind Acer in the years following the acquisition.

Lenovo is running a "Best Engineered PCs" advertising campaign and plans to use global sponsorship of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games to establish its brand more firmly.