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Over the past year, US citizens have become increasingly aware of the substandard consumer-level goods flowing out of China, but new reports indicate that the counterfeit products and dubious quality controls are not confined to the consumer sector. An increasingly large number of supposedly military-grade electronic components are turning out to be counterfeit commercial-grade hardware that, in some cases, is decades older than the manufacturing label indicates. The problem, to be sure, is not entirely China's fault. Back in 1994 and 1996, the Clinton Administration passed two bills, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (1994), and the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996...

AP story via Fox News. Link only Link

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today's hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory -- pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam. ADVERTISEMENT Computer users have been warned for years about virus threats from downloading Internet porn and opening suspicious e-mail attachments. Now they run the risk of picking up a digital infection just by plugging a new gizmo into their PCs. Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include some of the most widely used tech devices: Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by...

An aggressive, non-stop campaign by China to penetrate key government and industry databases in the United States already has succeeded and the United States urgently needs to monitor all internet traffic to critical government and private-sector networks “to find the enemy within,” SANS Institute Director of Research Alan Paller told SCMagazineUS.com. “They are already in and we have to find them,” Paller said. Paller said that empirical evidence analyzed by researchers leaves little doubt that the Chinese government has mounted a non-stop, well-financed attack to breach key national security and industry databases, adding that it is likely that this effort...

Last year I wrote a series of columns on management problems at IBM Global Services, explaining how the executive ranks from CEO Sam Palmisano on down were losing touch with reality, bidding contracts too low to make a profit then mismanaging them in an attempt to make a profit anyway, often to the detriment of IBM customers. Those columns and the reaction they created within the ranks at IBM showed just how bad things had become. Well they just got worse. This is according to my many friends at Big Blue, who believe they are about to undergo the biggest...

"The similarities are almost eerie. This year, readers gave us the lowdown on over 13,000 desktop PCs—enough data to rate eight of the country's leading brands. And the final tally looks an awful lot like last year's survey results," Cade Metz reports for PC Magazine on "The 19th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey." Metz reports, "This year, you diehard PC Mag readers detailed your experiences with nearly 20,000 PCs (notebooks and desktops) and more than 6,500 printers (from mono lasers to color ink jet all-in-ones). And what you say about the leading manufacturers isn't always what we'd expect. No big...

On August 4th, we found out that Lenovo Group, the company that has taken over IBM's Personal Computing Division, had made a deal with Novell Inc. to preload SLED 10 (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) on its ThinkPad T60p mobile workstation. For the first time, a major OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has committed to preloading a Linux desktop.

The US State Department has backed down on a controversial decision to install computers made by Chinese company Lenovo on its classified networks, officials said. But the department's purchase of about 16,000 personal computers (PCs) from Lenovo raises serious questions given accusations that China is aggressively spying on the United States, Republican lawmaker Frank Wolf said.

After having finally acquired IBM’s ThinkPad division, Lenovo has not really had an impressive ride thus far, and not without reason. There was a reason why ThinkPad was so successful (legendary reliability with support from one of the world’s largest technology companies). Users trusted IBM. In fact, they still do and that is one of the prime reasons that even though Lenovo has bought over the brand, nowhere on a ThinkPad does it say Lenovo. Despite the overall poor performance, Lenovo has still not gained the mindshare or the respect that the ThinkPads command. In fact, it has, to some...

The USCC launched a probe against Lenovo, but many wonder if the accusations are warranted The United States government is planning to spend roughly $13M USD on computers from Lenovo. The company, famous for buying up IBM's PC manufacturing arm, is working on a deal with the US government to produce roughly 16,000 computers. Just recently, the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission (USCC) has requested that Lenovo be probed for any concerns about possible spying, eavesdropping or worse. The supposed problem presented by the USCC is that the 16,000 computers are being built by a Chinese-mainland company. The USCC argues...

A US agency is calling for an official probe into Chinese computer firm Lenovo's contract to supply 15,000 computers to the US State Department. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) said it feared the PCs could be fitted with bugging devices to spy on the US government. Lenovo, which last year bought IBM's PC arm, said it had nothing to hide and would welcome the investigation. Concern has been rising in the US over foreign companies buying US firms. Political opposition Earlier this month United Arab Emirates-based docks company Dubai Ports World was forced to announce that it...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China's Lenovo Group said on Friday it would welcome a U.S. investigation, if necessary, to quell concerns about a State Department order of more than 15,000 of its computers. "We have nothing to hide," said Jeff Carlisle, vice president of government relations for Lenovo, which bought IBM's personal computer division last May. But he said no investigation was warranted and voiced qualms about being put at an unfair competitive advantage. The computers in question -- 15,000 Lenovo ThinkCentre 51 desktop units and nearly 1,000 Lenovo ThinkCentre M51 minitower units, valued at more than $13 million -- were...

Excerpt - SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Computer moved up a notch to become the No.4 seller of personal computers in the United States in the second quarter as Macintosh sales soared by one-third, according to two reports. Lenovo, the Chinese company that owns the IBM personal computer brand, lost share. Apple won 4.5 percent of the market to trail Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Gateway, the market research company IDC said Monday in a report. IDC's rival Gartner put Apple's share at 4.3 percent. [snip]

China is moving into the merger-and-acquisition major leagues, as its star corporations shop for American household names like Unocal, Maytag and IBM, looking for bigger profits through global ambitions. China's growing appetite for Western corporate icons is reflected computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd's recent takeover of IBM's personal computer business and two big deals reportedly in the making for Unocal Corp. and Maytag Corp. "I'd expect at least a half a dozen similar deals by the end of the year," said Jack J.T. Huang, chairman of international law firm Jones Day's Greater China practice. But the deals are not without...

DALLAS (AP) - Dell Inc. said Thursday it would take disciplinary action as appropriate against an American salesperson who sent an e-mail discouraging former IBM clients from buying Lenovo products. International Business Machines Corp. sold its personal computer business last year to Lenovo Group Ltd., which is partly owned by the Chinese government. That made Lenovo the world's third-largest personal computer business, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard Co. "We have a code of conduct that we uphold here for Dell in the U.S. and worldwide, specific guidelines for not commenting on competitors from an employee's standpoint. We're pretty serious about it,"...

The smart IBM boys want to dump their troubles on to, and make better use of, the Chinese, but their bright strategies seem very strange to some politicians in Washington. Now, these politicians raise the big weapon: the national interest.

LAS VEGAS -- Executives from IBM's (Profile, Products, Articles) PC division and Lenovo Group were out in force this week at IBM's annual PartnerWorld conference looking to reassure the company's channel partners that there will be no disruptions when the Chinese company's landmark $1.75 billion acquisition of Big Blue's PC group is completed, probably later in the second quarter. Lenovo and the IBM PC group have close to 100 employees at PartnerWorld this year, five times the number that have attended in the past between the two, and assuaging channel concerns over the acquisition clearly is a priority for IBM....

The U.S. government is close to completing its investigation into Lenovo Group Ltd.'s $1.7 billion acquisition of IBM Corp.'s computer division, sources close to the matter said. The companies are negotiating with federal regulators to foreclose any national security concerns over their deal, which could be approved as early as this week, a source said. Under its deadline to review the deal, the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, a multiagency panel that reviews acquisitions of U.S. businesses by foreign companies, must decide by mid-March whether to approve the transaction. Sources close to Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM and Beijing-based...

Pols attack IBM-Lenovo deal Three key lawmakers are pressing federal regulators to expand their probe into Lenovo Group Ltd.'s $1.7 billion acquisition of IBM Corp.'s PC division. In a letter Tuesday, Jan. 25, to Treasury Secretary John Snow, House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., House Small Business Committee Chairman Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., requested an agency briefing on the merger and urged him to withhold approval until they can confer. Hyde's panel poses a particular threat to the deal because it oversees export control issues. "Given the relationship between...

IBM-Lenovo (Chinese front) deal faces US security challenge SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 23 (Reuters) - IBM's proposed $1.25 billion sale of its personal computer business to Lenovo Group of China may be held up by U.S. regulators over national security concerns, Bloomberg reported on Sunday. The report, citing unnamed sources "familiar with the matter" said members of the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, or CFIUS, are concerned that Lenovo employees might be used to conduct industrial espionage.

I.B.M. said yesterday that the personal computer business it was selling to the Lenovo Group of China had not made a profit for three and a half years. I.B.M.'s personal computing division had a loss of $139 million in the six months ended June 30. It had losses of $258 million in 2003, $171 million in 2002 and $397 million in 2001, I.B.M. said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During that period, the PC division had sales of $34.1 billion. I.B.M., which is based in Armonk, N.Y., does not typically reveal results for its PC division,...

In July 2003, Sam Palmisano, the chief executive of IBM, traveled to Beijing to explore the sale of the company's personal computer business. But he did not start by making the usual visit with executives of IBM's preferred partner, Lenovo, China's largest personal computer maker. Instead, Palmisano first engaged in a bit of old-fashioned courtship. Before formally approaching Lenovo, he sought permission from the parents, by meeting privately with a senior Chinese government official in charge of economic and technology policy. IBM was not merely looking to sell its PC business, Palmisano told the official, but had bigger aspirations of...

CULTURAL EVOLUTION December 9, 2004 Margaret Warner discusses IBM's sale of its personal computer business to one of China's top PC makers with a technology expert and a China analyst. MARGARET WARNER: The company that pioneered the personal computer is leaving the business. IBM, which brought the first PC to market in 1981, announced this week it's selling its PC business to China's top personal computer company, Lenovo. The $1.75 billion deal will make Lenovo number three in the global PC Market, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Lenovo will move its headquarters to New York City. And the deal gives IBM...

IBM will sell its PC division to China-based Lenovo and take a minority stake in the former rival in a deal valued at $1.75 billion, the companies announced Tuesday. The two companies announced a plan to form a complex joint venture that would make Lenovo the third-largest PC maker in the world, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard, but still give IBM a hand in the PC business. The acqusition is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2005. Under the deal, IBM will take an 18.9 percent stake in Lenovo. Lenovo will pay $1.25 billion for the IBM PC...

Lenovo Group, China's Biggest Computer Maker, Acquires IBM's PC Business for $1.75 Billion BEIJING (AP) -- China's biggest computer maker, Lenovo Group, said Wednesday it has acquired a majority stake in International Business Machines Corp.'s personal computer business for $1.75 billion, one of the biggest Chinese overseas acquisitions ever. ADVERTISEMENT The deal shifts IBM to a peripheral role in a corner of the technology industry it pioneered. It creates a joint venture in which Lenovo Group Ltd. takes over the IBM-brand personal computer business, including research and development and manufacturing, while IBM will keep an 18.9 percent stake in the...

China's biggest computer maker, Lenovo Group, said Wednesday it has acquired a majority stake in International Business Machines Corp.'s personal computer business for $1.25 billion, one of the biggest Chinese overseas acquisitions ever. The deal shifts IBM to a peripheral role in a corner of the technology industry it pioneered. It creates a joint venture in which Lenovo Group Ltd. takes over the IBM-brand personal computer business, including research and development and manufacturing, while IBM will keep an 18.5 percent stake in the company, said Lenovo's chairman, Liu Chuanzhi. The deal makes Lenovo the third-largest PC company in the world,...

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's largest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group Ltd., said Wednesday it is buying control of IBM's PC-making business for US$1.25 billion, capping the U.S. tech giant's gradual withdrawal from the business it helped pioneer in 1981. The agreement, which forms the world's third largest PC business, calls for Lenovo to pay IBM $650 million in cash, $600 million in Lenovo Group common stock and for Lenovo to assume $500 million in net balance sheet liabilities from IBM.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Tech giant IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is selling its PC-making business to China's largest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group Ltd. (0992.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) , for $1.25 billion, Lenovo said on Wednesday. "Lenovo has acquired IBM's personal services business for $1.25 billion," Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Lenovo Group Ltd., told reporters in Beijing. He said the deal would make Lenovo the world's no. 3 personal computer maker.

China's largest personal computer maker, Lenovo Group Ltd., could announce as early as Tuesday that it is buying control of IBM's PC-making business for up to US$2 billion, a source familiar with the situation said. In its first disclosure that a deal may be imminent, Lenovo said it was in acquisition talks with a major technology company, without identifying the firm. It asked the Hong Kong stock exchange to suspend trading in its shares for a second day, reversing an earlier announcement that trade would resume on Tuesday. "Such discussions are at an advanced stage but no definitive agreement or...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) - Its name certainly doesn't carry the recognition of Dell, Hewlett-Packard or Apple Computer, but China's Lenovo Group could climb up the personal-computer food chain if it ends up buying IBM's PC business. Lenovo (HK:992: news, chart, profile), which sells low-margin PCs in China under the Legend brand, is reportedly negotiating for IBM's PC business for as much as $2 billion. IBM officials declined to comment. Lenovo's Legend line is still relatively unknown outside of China, and research firm Gartner Group pegs the company's share of worldwide PC shipments at 2 percent, placing it in 9th place...

International Business Machines, whose first I.B.M. PC in 1981 moved personal computing out of the hobby shop and into the corporate and consumer mainstream, has put the business up for sale, people close to the negotiations said yesterday. While I.B.M. long ago ceded the lead in the personal computer market to Dell and Hewlett-Packard so it could focus instead on the more lucrative corporate server and computer services business, a sale would nonetheless bring the end of an era in an industry that it helped invent. The sale, likely to be in the $1 billion to $2 billion range, is...