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Lenovo ditches bid for Brazil's Positivo

By Wang Xing (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-19 08:00

Related readings:  Lenovo confirms Brazil PC deal dead  Reports: Lenovo offers $833m for Positivo  Lenovo ponders buying into Brazil firm  Lenovo profit nosedives amid economic woe

Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group confirmed yesterday it has abandoned bids for the Brazilian PC vender Positivo Informatica citing the current economic uncertainties.

The world's fourth largest PC maker said in a statement that it is now impossible to reach any deal with the Brazilian computer maker because of uncertainties brought about by the financial storm. But it said it remains interested in building strategic cooperation with Positivo.

Lenovo was reported last week to offer $833 million for acquiring Positivo Informatica, Brazil's largest PC maker.

Lenovo said it will continue to evaluate other opportunities to drive up business, which includes organic growth, acquisitions and partnerships.

Lenovo Chairman Yang Yuanqing said last month that the company would focus on expanding business in emerging markets and look for acquisition opportunities despite the gloomy market.

Simon Ye, an analyst with the research firm Gartner, said Lenovo's sluggish performance in the past quarter, during which the company's profit slumped 78 percent, may be one of the factors that foiled the company's acquisition effort.

He said difficulties in consolidation and the high premium that Positivo Informatica demanded may also have thwarted the deal.

While seeing slowdowns in mature markets, Lenovo has been aggressively expanding in emerging markets. In the second quarter, its business in Brazil increased by 42 percent, beating the market average of 30 percent.

Last year, Lenovo tried to acquire the European computer maker Packard Bell but the effort was foiled by Acer's takeover of the US PC maker Gateway. The Taiwan-based Acer later replaced Lenovo as the world's third largest computer maker.

According to research firm IDC, global PC shipments will rise just 3.8 percent in 2009, a drastic cut from the 13.7 percent growth that IDC had predicted earlier. It said the hardest hit areas will be the emerging PC markets.