Lenovo sets handset business free for $100 million

Are you sitting comfortably? There’s a bit of shock news. Lenovo is selling off its mobile unit. What do you mean you’d forgotten it had a mobile unit?

Lenovo is set to make $100 million on the sale, with a bunch of VCs led by Hony Captial taking it over. The company said its hand enough of the mobile market and is selling the unit to concentrate on what it does best – selling PCs. According to Lenovo, the handset business will now “operate independently and set its own strategic direction”.

The unit hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory recently. Lenovo’s latest set of quarterly results showed that the mobile handset sales dropped off by 31 percent year on year – making a rather painful contrast with its laptop business which turned in a 38 percent increase – and fell 17 percent the quarter before. A good move then on Lenovo’s part, and hopefully the unit will be able to make more of a mark in the future.

It’s not the end of Lenovo’s interest in mobility though – it’s still working with the likes of Avaya to turn its laptops into softphones.