Johannesburg, 02 Aug 2012
Honk Kong-listed Lenovo and New York Stock Exchange-listed EMC have partnered to enhance Lenovo's position in industry-standard servers and networked storage solutions.
The agreement should also expand EMC's reach in China and other key, high-growth markets.
The new partnership is expected to spark innovation and additional research and development in the server and storage markets by increasing the product development talents and resources at both companies, while driving scale and efficiency in the partners' respective supply chains, the companies said in a statement.
Yuanqing Yang, Lenovo chairman and CEO, said the partnership will “help us fully deliver on our PC-plus strategy by giving us strong back-end capabilities and business foundation in servers and storage, in addition to our already strong position in devices. EMC is the perfect partner to help us fully realise the PC-plus opportunity in the long-term.”
Lenovo and EMC have formed a server technology development programme that will accelerate and extend Lenovo's capabilities in the x86 industry-standard server segment. These servers will be brought to market by Lenovo and embedded into selected EMC storage systems over time.
The companies have forged an original equipment manufacturer and reseller relationship in which Lenovo will provide EMC's networked storage solutions to its customers, initially in China, and expanding into other global markets in step with the ongoing development of its server business.
EMC and Lenovo plan to bring certain assets and resources from EMC's Iomega business into a new joint venture, which will provide network-attached storage systems to small/medium businesses and distributed enterprise sites.
Joe Tucci, chairman and CEO of EMC, said the relationship with Lenovo “represents a powerful opportunity for EMC to significantly expand our presence in China, a vibrant and very important market, and extend it to other parts of the world over time”.
In the joint venture, Lenovo will contribute cash, while EMC will provide Iomega assets and resources. Upon closing, Lenovo will hold a majority interest in the new joint venture.
The partnership is not considered material to either company's current fiscal year earnings.
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