Interview excerpts from the New York Times with William Amelio, Lenovo’s chief executive on the Chinese company’s global vision and PR:
Q. How did the State Department decision play out?
A. It’s dying down dramatically. I personally spent time in Washington, along with other key executives, to help educate a lot of the lawmakers. The issue isn’t associated with hardware at all. It’s associated with a common problem in the industry: the potential or ability for someone to put viruses in PC’s. We’re confident all our Lenovo computers don’t possess any backdoor surveillance equipment, spy chips or the like.Q. What percentage of sales comes from China?
A. We’re upwards of a $14 billion company today; less than $4 billion in China, the rest outside. [Full Text]
See also Rediff News’ “HP, HCL feel the heat of Lenovo;” InterFax’s “Lenovo slashes ThinkPad prices by 33% in US;” PCWorld’s “New Lenovo Boasts Top-Flight Performance” and IT Week’s “Lenovo ships first AMD PC”
