The new staff included 18 people with graduate degrees, 37 with undergraduate degrees, and three students with no university-level education. Although interviewers initially only had authority to hire 16 people, 58 were given offers. 120 of these candidates were interviewed in person. Out of the 500 respondents, 280 were selected to take a written employment exam. Such ads were quite rare in China at the time. In May 1988, Lenovo placed its first recruitment advertisement on the front page of the China Youth News. In 1990, Lenovo started to manufacture and market computers using its own brand name. It also tried and failed to market a digital watch. It rebuilt itself as a company doing quality checks on computers. The group first attempted to import televisions but failed. It included a technology, engineering, administrative, and office departments. The organizational structure of the company was established in 1985 after the Chinese New Year. The name for the company agreed upon at this meeting was the Chinese Academy of Sciences Computer Technology Research Institute New Technology Development Company. The 200,000 yuan used as start-up capital was approved by Zeng Maochao (曾茂朝). Each of the founders was a member of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Eleven people, the entirety of the initial staff, attended. Jia Xufu (贾续福), one of the founders of Lenovo, indicated that the first meeting in preparation for starting the company was held on October 17 the same year. The Chinese government approved Lenovo's incorporation on the same day. Liu Chuanzhi, along with a group of ten experienced engineers, officially founded Lenovo in Beijing on November 1, 1984, with 200,000 yuan. In 1984, Lenovo was founded in Beijing by a team of eleven engineers from the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led by Liu Chuanzhi. History 1984–1993: Founding and early history 6.3 Television, internet, and other media.6.1 Celebrity sponsorships and endorsements.4.1 Accusations of slave labor by supplier.3.1.3 ThinkServer, followed by ThinkSystem.1.5 2014–present: Purchase of IBM server lines and other acquisitions.1.4 2011–2013: Re-entering smartphone market and other ventures.1.3 1999–2010: IBM purchase and sale of smartphone division.1.2 1994–1998: IPO, second offerings and bond sales.IBM's Think-line systems are exclusively developed in Yamato and in Morrisville. It has research centers in Beijing, Chengdu, Yamato ( Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan), Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Morrisville (North Carolina, US), and also has Lenovo NEC Holdings, a joint venture with NEC that produces personal computers for the Japanese market. Its global headquarters is located in Beijing, China, while its operational headquarters is in Morrisville, North Carolina, US. Lenovo has operations in over 60 countries and sells its products in around 180 countries. Since the 1990s, Lenovo has increasingly diversified from the personal computer market and made a number of corporate acquisitions, with the most notable acquiring and integrating most of IBM's personal computer business and its Intel-based server business as well creating its own smartphone.
Lenovo grew to become the market leader in China and raised nearly US$30 million in an initial public offering in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Initially specializing in televisions, the company migrated towards manufacturing and marketing computers. Lenovo was founded in Beijing in 1 November 1984 as Legend by a team of engineers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
As of January 2021, Lenovo is the world's largest personal computer vendor by unit sales. Its best-known brands include IBM's ThinkPad business line of laptop computers, the IdeaPad, Yoga, and Legion consumer lines of laptop computers, and the IdeaCentre and ThinkCentre lines of desktop computers.
Products manufactured by the company includes desktop computers, laptops, tablet computers, smartphones, workstations, servers, supercomputers, electronic storage devices, IT management software, and smart televisions. Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( / l ə ˈ n oʊ v oʊ/ lə- NOH-voh, Chinese: 联想), is a Chinese -American multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, personal computers, software, business solutions, and related services.