New York / Hong Kong – 10 December 2004 – LAWFUEL – First for law news – Global law firm Clifford Chance has advised Lenovo Group Ltd. in its acquisition of IBM’s Personal Computing Division. The US$1.75 billion deal forms the world’s third-largest PC business, bringing IBM’s leading enterprise-class PC technologies to the consumer market and giving Lenovo global market reach beyond China and Asia.
Upon completion of the transaction, IBM will become Lenovo’s second-largest shareholder, with an 18.9% stake; Lenovo and IBM will implement a broad-based strategic alliance in which IBM will be the preferred services and customer financing provider to Lenovo; and Lenovo will be the preferred supplier of PCs to IBM.
Clifford Chance’s deal team was led from New York by partners John Healy and Brian Hoffmann, and partner Amy Lo in the firm’s Hong Kong office led the team advising on Hong Kong Stock Exchange matters.
Other New York lawyers working on the deal included: Tax counsel, Phil Wagman, associates Ben Sibbett, Alex Hill, Barbara Lubliner, Al Ricotta and Timo Rehbock (all M&A), Victoria Manthas (Real Estate) and Daniel Goldfisher (Intellectual Property). Hong Kong lawyers included: Corporate associates Angela Wu, John Fung, Lina Lee and Neeraj Budhwani, and Corporate trainees Peter Law and Vicky Ma. Hong Kong Finance lawyers Frances Wong (partner) and David Wilson (associate) are advising on the financing aspects of the deal.
