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Lenovo shakes up Think, Idea product groups

Erica Ogg CNET News

Published: 26 Mar 2009 15:32 GMT

Lenovo announced an internal overhaul on Wednesday, reorganising its regional and product groups.

Think products, such as the iconic ThinkPad and the desktop ThinkStation, will be separated from the Idea group, which makes the IdeaPad and IdeaCentre PCs. The Think group will focus on commercial customers as well as high-end small and medium businesses. The Idea group will target consumer and SMB transactional customers.

The reorganisation also spawned two new business units: one that targets mature markets, and another that targets emerging markets. They will replace the current business units that focus on specific regions. Lenovo considers the US, Canada, Israel, Australia/New Zealand and Western Europe mature, while Africa, Asia Pacific, China, Eastern Europe, India, Pakistan, Korea, Taiwan, Turkey and the Middle East are emerging.

The reorganisation is the latest change at the Chinese company, which has been hit hard by the faltering global economy and resulting drop in IT spending. Lenovo lost $97m (£140m) last quarter — which resulted in the chief executive stepping down, and the laying off of 11 percent of its workforce, due partly to the fact it is so heavily invested in large commercial customers.

In an interview withZDNet UK's sister site, CNET News.com, last month, Lenovo chief operating officer Rory Read said the transactional business had slowed down more than expected, and that he hoped to grow the consumer business to more than the current 25 to 30 percent of sales it already accounts for.

Credit: Lenovo separates Think, Idea product groups from CNET News