????在這場(chǎng)斗雞博弈中，IBM似乎已心生退意。

????總部位于紐約州阿蒙可的IBM希望出售旗下x86低端服務(wù)器業(yè)務(wù)已經(jīng)有一段時(shí)間了。去年初，它也曾與最可能的買家聯(lián)想進(jìn)行過(guò)正兒八經(jīng)的談判。總部位于北京的聯(lián)想（Lenovo）曾于2005年收購(gòu)了IBM的PC業(yè)務(wù)。后來(lái)，可能達(dá)成交易的消息據(jù)稱被IBM泄露，消息稱這塊業(yè)務(wù)的售價(jià)將超過(guò)40億美元。但消息可能放早了：這個(gè)天價(jià)讓聯(lián)想望而卻步，轉(zhuǎn)身離去。

????上周四，這兩家公司宣布它們最終達(dá)成了交易。聯(lián)想將支付23億美元，收購(gòu)IBM這塊年收入約46億美元的業(yè)務(wù)。約7,500名IBM員工將加入聯(lián)想。

????消息發(fā)布兩天前，IBM還在第四季度業(yè)績(jī)報(bào)告中表示，硬件業(yè)務(wù)的下滑速度超過(guò)預(yù)期。IBM決定與聯(lián)想簽署上述協(xié)議的時(shí)間可能是在這份業(yè)績(jī)報(bào)告之前，但顯然IBM清楚自己持有的這項(xiàng)資產(chǎn)只會(huì)逐年縮水。23億美元的價(jià)格固然大大低于IBM一年前的要價(jià)，但接受這個(gè)價(jià)格仍然是明智之舉。

????這項(xiàng)交易對(duì)于聯(lián)想及其投資者也有很大意義，交易消息將聯(lián)想美股的股價(jià)推高了3%多。近年來(lái)，這家中國(guó)公司在PC行業(yè)表現(xiàn)出色。約6個(gè)月前，它小幅超越惠普(Hewlett-Packard)，躍居行業(yè)第一。如今，整個(gè)PC市場(chǎng)正在經(jīng)歷空前的滑坡，聯(lián)想也是全行業(yè)唯一一家保持業(yè)績(jī)穩(wěn)健的大型PC公司。這家公司的成功源自多元化（包括產(chǎn)品和地域多元化）策略、規(guī)模效應(yīng)以及超低的利潤(rùn)率。哦，對(duì)了，還有完美的執(zhí)行。

????正如《財(cái)富》雜志在去年的一份特寫報(bào)道中所指，聯(lián)想的最終目標(biāo)是依托自己在PC行業(yè)的主導(dǎo)地位，挑戰(zhàn)蘋果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)在移動(dòng)行業(yè)的地位。

????那么，這項(xiàng)交易對(duì)于聯(lián)想的這個(gè)目標(biāo)有何推進(jìn)呢？首先，它能顯著增強(qiáng)聯(lián)想在低端服務(wù)器領(lǐng)域的地位，并能在開(kāi)發(fā)和制造領(lǐng)域能與PC業(yè)務(wù)產(chǎn)生極大的協(xié)同效應(yīng)。收購(gòu)IBM這塊業(yè)務(wù)后，聯(lián)想在企業(yè)數(shù)據(jù)中心服務(wù)器行業(yè)的排名將從第六升至第三?！拔覀兊臉I(yè)務(wù)將據(jù)此增長(zhǎng)近10倍，”聯(lián)想高級(jí)副總裁彼得?霍騰休斯在一次電話會(huì)議上告訴記者們。

????第二，雖然低端服務(wù)器是IBM的低利潤(rùn)率業(yè)務(wù)，但對(duì)于聯(lián)想仍屬于高利潤(rùn)率，聯(lián)想總是將市場(chǎng)占有率置于比利潤(rùn)更重要的地位，以低價(jià)與戴爾(Dell)和惠普展開(kāi)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。

????總利潤(rùn)率的提升能給這家中國(guó)公司一定的喘息空間，以增加對(duì)快速增長(zhǎng)的、年輕的移動(dòng)業(yè)務(wù)的投資。聯(lián)想進(jìn)入智能手機(jī)行業(yè)是約略兩年多前，但依托它在中國(guó)和其他發(fā)展中市場(chǎng)的業(yè)務(wù)強(qiáng)勢(shì)，去年第三季度，聯(lián)想的智能手機(jī)銷量已位列全球第三。雖然聯(lián)想5.1%的全球市場(chǎng)份額仍遠(yuǎn)落后于蘋果的12.1%和三星的32.1%，但這樣的表現(xiàn)仍然令人贊嘆。

????“我們對(duì)于這項(xiàng)收購(gòu)倍感興奮，”霍騰休斯說(shuō)。“這對(duì)于我們是符合邏輯的一步?！?/p>

????當(dāng)前的主要問(wèn)題是這項(xiàng)交易能否獲得監(jiān)管部門的批準(zhǔn)，包括可能還需要接受美國(guó)國(guó)家安全的評(píng)估。從以往經(jīng)驗(yàn)看，這筆交易很有可能獲得批準(zhǔn)：不同于很多中國(guó)公司，聯(lián)想的運(yùn)營(yíng)透明度和開(kāi)放度很大程度上是執(zhí)行的西方標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。它已經(jīng)向美國(guó)聯(lián)邦機(jī)構(gòu)出售了數(shù)以萬(wàn)計(jì)的PC，并多次獲準(zhǔn)收購(gòu)美國(guó)公司或美國(guó)公司的子公司。其中最值得一提的交易就是聯(lián)想于2005年收購(gòu)IBM的PC業(yè)務(wù)，恰恰就是這項(xiàng)交易開(kāi)啟了一家中國(guó)成功企業(yè)向全球巨頭的轉(zhuǎn)變之旅?；趄v休斯曾代表IBM進(jìn)行了2005年收購(gòu)交易的談判，并于此后加入了聯(lián)想。他表示，最新的這筆交易預(yù)計(jì)將在6-9個(gè)月內(nèi)完成。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????In this game of chicken, it looks like IBM blinked.

????The Armonk, N.Y.-based technology company (IBM) has wanted to unload its low-end, x86 server business for some time. Early last year, it conducted serious negotiations with the most likely buyer, Lenovo, the Beijing-based company that purchased its personal computer business in 2005. News of an impending deal, presumably leaked by IBM, suggested that the unit would fetchnorth of $4 billion. But it was premature: Lenovo balked at the steep price and walked away.

????On Thursday, the companies announced that they finally had a deal. Lenovo will pay $2.3 billion for IBM's business, which brings in approximately $4.6 billion in revenue annually. Some 7,500 IBM employees will join Lenovo.

????The news comes just two days after IBM said during its fourth-quarter earnings report that its hardware business was declining faster than expected. While the decision to seal the deal with Lenovo likely preceded the report, it's clear that IBM understood that it was holding on to an asset whose value would only decline over time. It wisely took the $2.3 billion, even though it was a much smaller sum than what it had asked a year earlier.

????The deal makes plenty of sense for Lenovo, too, as well as its investors, which sent the company's U.S. shares up by more than 3% on the news. The Chinese company has been killing it in the PC business for years. A little over six months ago, it became No. 1 in the industry, edging out Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). Lenovo is also the only major PC vendor that has managed to hold steady as the PC market experiences its worst declines in history. The company has staked its success on a strategy of diversification (in both product and geography), scale, and wafer-thin margins. Oh, and flawless execution.

????As Fortune explained in a feature story last year, Lenovo's ultimate goal is to leverage its dominant position in PCs to challenge Apple (AAPL) and Samsung in mobile.

????So how does this deal further those ambitions? First, it significantly strengthens Lenovo's position in low-end servers, a business that has a lot of synergies with PCs with regard to development and manufacturing. With IBM's unit, Lenovo will go from No. 6 to No. 3 in the business of selling servers to corporate data centers. "It grows our business by almost a factor of 10," Peter Hortensius, a senior vice president at Lenovo, said in a conference call with reporters.

????What's more, while low-end servers were a low-margin business for IBM, they represent a high-margin business for Lenovo, which has often prioritized market share over profits and undercut rivals like Dell and HP on price.

????A boost in overall profit margins could give the Chinese company the breathing room it needs to invest more heavily in its mobile business, which is still young but growing quickly. In the third quarter, Lenovo, which entered the smartphone market only a little more than two years ago, became the No. 3 seller worldwide, on the strength of its business in China and other developing markets. While Lenovo's 5.1% share of the global market remains far behind Apple's 12.1% share and Samsung's 32.1% share, the performance is impressive.

????"We're very excited by this acquisition," Hortensius said. "It's the logical next step for us."

????The major question now is whether the deal will clear regulatory approval, including a likely national security review. History suggests it will: Unlike many Chinese companies, Lenovo largely operates by Western standards of transparency and openness. It sells tens of thousands of PCs to federal agencies, and it has been cleared to buy American companies or units of American companies on multiple occasions. The most significant of those was Lenovo's 2005 acquisition of IBM's PC business, a deal that began the transformation of a successful Chinese company into a global powerhouse. Hortensius, who helped negotiate that deal on behalf of IBM and then joined Lenovo, said he expects the deal to close in six to nine months.