Larry Magid interviews the Vice President, Products and Offerings of IBM's Personal Systems Group, Peter Hortensius on the motivations and impacts of the IBM Lenovo merger deal.

Larry digs deep into the details of the US$ 1.25B merger, or acquisition, of one of the computer industry's premier brands, the ThinkPad, by the Chinese Lenovo. How will this merger between two such vastly different cultures work? Is this really nothing more than offshoring on steroids? How will the controversial policies and track record on human rights and labor in China affect the venerable IBM?

Peter Hortensius exudes confidence in his explanation of what he calls the merger of two very complementary companies with well aligned core values of trust and integrity, focus on innovation and how Lenovo is one of the most desired companies to work for in China.

How will the Chinese leanings towards Linux affect the IBM, now Lenovo, relationship with Microsoft? Is this the beginning of an industry trend? All this and more, on this edition of Larry's World.

---

IT Conversations' publication of this program is underwritten by your donations and:

---

Peter Hortensius is currently the Vice President of Products and Offerings for IBM's Personal Systems group. In this role he is responsible for IBM’s Personal Systems products, including IBM’s industry leading ThinkPad notebook computers, IBM’s ThinkCentre desktop computers, ThinkVision monitors, and related Options products as well as IBM’s exciting ThinkVantage Technologies.

Resources:

• The IBM Lenovo acquisition press release
• Lenovo Group corporate site
• A Wharton article: The IBM/Lenovo Deal: Victory For China?

This program is from the Larry's World series.

For Team ITC:

• Description editor: Arun Tanksali
• Post-production audio engineer: Tim Butler