Are IBM and Lenovo the same company? It’s complicated. They aren’t the same company, but it’s easy to see why someone might think they are at least related. For a while at least, they wanted it that way. So let’s untangle the relationship.
IBM and Lenovo
Lenovo started selling PCs in China in 1990, and soon became China’s largest PC maker. But in 2004, Lenovo was little known outside that region, though it had designs on expanding worldwide. Meanwhile, IBM had a PC business that had outlived its usefulness, at least as far as IBM was concerned.
IBM wanted to unload that business while it still had some value, and Lenovo wanted to expand beyond China. The two companies found a match, and IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2005. Part of the deal was that Lenovo could continue to use the IBM name on those products for a few years, since IBM had a lot more name recognition. The names of the former IBM product lines remained unchanged. For that matter, Lenovo kept some of IBM’s design philosophy.
Meanwhile, IBM recommended Lenovo products to its customers, and even promoted and sold them via their web site. That is very typical for IBM. After IBM spun off Lexmark, IBM continued to talk up and recommend Lexmark printers for years afterward.
Same product, different companies
Lenovo phased out its use of the IBM name before it was legally obligated to do so, only using it for about 11 months. They may have found using the IBM name didn’t help as much as they expected. As much respect as IBM carries, their reputation can sometimes be a liability as well. The market never forgave IBM for its PS/2 debacle.
But even after Lenovo stopped using the IBM name, they continued to use the old product names. The laptops are still Thinkpads and Ideapads, and the desktops are still Thinkcentres. And the Thinkpads I have used at work since 2014 don’t look all that different from the Thinkpads IBM used to make. They’ve gotten thinner and lighter as technology has improved, but the styling hasn’t changed much.
Lenovo played up the name recognition of IBM’s products, while not emphasizing its own name. The strategy has worked well. Lenovo went from being unknown outside of China to being a top-3 PC maker worldwide almost overnight, and it has held onto that position.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.