[photopress:lenovo_beijing.jpg,full,alignright]The Lenovo Group’s net profit surged more than 12-fold in the quarter ended June 30. This is amazing considering that in 2005, Lenovo spent $1.25 billion acquiring IBM’s PC unit and the Thinkpad brand.
To get this most-excellent profit result the world’s third biggest-PC maker cut jobs and increased revenue in the developed regions
China’s No. 1 PC vendor also said it would launch an aggressive marketing campaign within China including a bargain computer that will cost only RMB1,499 ($197).
Chen Shaopeng, Lenovo’s senior vice-president and president of China operations, ‘In 2007 and 2008 all of our marketing campaigns will be focused on the Olympic Games.’ In 2004, Lenovo signed a deal with the International Olympic Committee to join the sponsorship program.
Lenovo was chosen to design the torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well. The curly design on the torch is based on a traditional Chinese representation of clouds. The torch is clearly based on symbolism. It also seems to be inspired by the shape of a traditional Chinese scroll.
Lenovo’s net profit in the period jumped to $66.8 million, or 0.74 US cent a share from 5.2 million a year earlier. Revenue rose to $3.93 billion, a 13% growth from last year.
In April, Lenovo announced it would cut 1,400 jobs over the year ending March 31, 2008 which will help it save $100 million. At the end of June, Lenovo employed 25,120 workers (19,315 in China).
In the United States, Lenovo’s revenue grew 15% quarter-on-quarter to hit $1.1 billion in the period and it surged 22% to $755 million in Europe, Middle East and Africa, mainly fueled by sales in Germany and France.
Rivals, including Hewlett Packard, Dell and Acer, are also expanding their consumer segments. Dell, which relies heavily on enterprise clients, has launched new brands for consumers and adapted sales channels to target personal users.
According to the US-based IDC in the second quarter, HP led the market with 19.3% worldwide, followed by Dell’s 16.1%, Lenovo’s 8.3% and Acer’s 7.2%.
Source: Jongo News