Lenovo Takes on Samsung and Apple in the Global Smartphone Market

Lenovo has agreed to buy smartphone manufacturer Motorola from Google for $2.9bn.As Puneet Pal Singh from the BBC explains in his excellent analysis of the deal, this is not the first time that Lenovo has used an acquisition to accelerate its growth (a good example of "external growth). Back in 2005 it acquired the desktop and laptop business of IBM which immediately catapulted it into the global top division of computer manufacturers. Now, Lenovo is the world's largest manufacturer of computers and it has set its sights on building global market share in mobile devices, particularly smartphones and tablets.Overnight, the takeover of Motorola puts Lenovo into third place globally, overtaking Huawei, which itself also has global leadership ambitions. Regular readers of the business blog might also ask - where are Sony and Nokia? The answer, of course, is falling fast as competition intensifies.

The Motorola acquisition is discussed in this video:

This video from Bloomberg discusses how Lenovo has already grown its market share successfully in China:

and this short video from the FT explores the overall strategy of Lenovo: