Lenovo Looking to Buy Packard Bell

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After buying the IBM PC division just a couple of years ago, Lenovo is once again on the prowl and it looks like the next target will be a buyout of Packard Bell

Packard Bell sells notebook and desktop PCs in Europe, South America and parts of Asia. The biggest market by far for Packard Bell is in Europe though. Back in the early 1990's Packard Bell was a common name in U.S. households for early 386SX and 486DX Intel desktop machines, but the brand was dropped in that country by the mid 90's.

 

Packard Bell is owned by John Hui, who used to own the eMachines brand in the U.S. before it was bought out by Gateway. Hui is currently in exclusive talks with Lenovo for the sale of Packard Bell. Earlier rumors had said that Acer was also in talks to acquire the company, but that is not the case.

Lenovo's goal here is to increase their worldwide market share. The purchase of IBM PCs gave Lenovo a big gateway into the U.S. market, and by owning Packard Bell they would make further inroads with the European PC market.

Packard Bell mostly competes on price and is not known for innovation with its products, but because they do tend to achieve low pricing it is a brand with recognition in countries such as the UK. Click here see a review of their current mainstream notebook offering in the UK, the Packard Bell MZ.

 

Current Packard Bell MZ notebook (view large image)

 

Even though it's the European Packard Bell, is there really a point in saving that sinking ship?

Oh for the sake of market share.

 

I don't know much about economics, but it surely doesn't sound like a very lucrative business deal to me.

 

Well, Emachines was pretty pathetic too, but Gateway made it a decent computer for those on a budget....

 

Agreed. I believe Lenovo would do much better by applying more aggressive R&D and marketing strategies to their current lineup, instead of acquiring Packard bell. They are already huge in many respects, but if they manage to become a popular mainstream brand in Europe as well, they will be gigantic.

The ThinkPads are doing what they always do, so no worries there.

Lenovo has even done some good to the ThinkPad series, so if they keep up the same style, they will do well.

Cut from Wikipedia:

Lenovo's contribution to ThinkPad

* Added Magnesium-alloy chassis roll cage to reduce motherboard flex caused by holding the laptop one handed on a corner.

* Added Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic to 15" Thinkpad Models.

* Reintroduced a line of Tablet PCs based on the X series.

* Introduced Widescreen displays with the Z series of Thinkpads and added the option of Widescreen to the T series models.

* Brought back a consumer friendly laptop under the Z series line of Thinkpads.

* Added the Windows key making all the Windows shortcuts possible. (Although possible before with the keyboard remapping utility)

* Added Magnesium-alloy lid roll cage for a sturdier lid while replacing the lid material from magnesium-alloy to plastic for better wireless signal reception.

* Official support for Linux.[26]

And last thing I read, they are bringing back the stripes on the trackPoint buttons. A small but nice thing nonetheless for ThinkPad loyalists.

 

Well, my family has had two Packard Bells and one of them is still around. It is collecting dust in my brother's room who refuses to throw it out because it was our first "real" computer. It's the horizontal CPU design. Gotta love it. lol

Floppy DISKs!

 

Anyone notice how these same CEO's seem to be leading companies that get bought out? They seem to jump from one company to another right before the buyout wave hits...

 

Hey, then they can have a budget line sort of like what HP did with Compaq To me the Packard Bell name is just not one that I would have very much confidence in...even though I do have some good memories of Packard Bell. Of course, I know nothing about what they're like today but back in the Windows 3.1 days...they did have some interesting machines with good software suites.

Still, if Lenovo DID buy Packard Bell, I couldn't see myself straying from the ThinkPads to buy a PB machine (assuming they kept the branding)

 

Thinkpad turned out to be a good purchase for Lenovo, seeing how all these Lenovi non-thinkpad laptops are on-sale everywhere now....But PB? Hmmm, I am not so sure about this one, but I bet its much cheaper than thinkpad.

 

I don't think that Lenovo can change the stigma of the Packard Bell brand name though, so it might not be such a good idea.

 

I bought a packard bell once...I'm typing on it now with the screen hanging out of the case (I took it out as it's the only position the screen stays on) and recovering from my 4th HD failure in 2 years...

 

I think it's a great thing. I don't know about the US, but if you walk into PC World, or any office store, like Staples, you're usually confronted by a Packard Bell PC. Some even sell next to the groceries in the Supermarket. Although it isn't the best performing company, it looks like Lenovo has a lot to gain in the future. After all, we've seen so many good examples of Entrepreneurs starting off with limited resources, and ending up with Sky-high profits a few years down the line.

 

No doubt for us North Americans, Packard Bell gives us a sour taste in our mouths, but I hear its done pretty well in Europe at least, its been improving.

 

Haha, I thought that brand died like 10 years ago. I could only imagine the super cheap desktop and laptops that would be under that brand name.

 

who knew PB was still alive...they made the biggest POS's back in the day

 

I hope this isn't true... PB + Thinkpad = net negative. "Lenovo Thinkpads" are going to lose a lot of their brand name. At least for me, PB is rock bottom, cheap, and not very well build, whereas the Thinkpads are the opposite. Combining the two brands just doesn't make sense.

 

Definitely agree with most of the comments, if Lenovo wishes to gain a better market share, it would be unwise to buy PB. Fixing the problems with its IBM PC division acquisition (e.g. production delays, quality issues, etc.) investing more money into R&D / strategy would be a much better move for Lenovo.

 

I don't know about the rest of you guys, buy my Packard Bell has been excellent - it beats my friend's E1705 (we bought our laptops at the same time).

 

I think Lenovo would do well to give Packard Bell a new brand name and corporate and product identity and turn them into a decent Lenovo budget brand.