Lenovo confirms NEC joint venture, will involve both PCs and smartphones

Continuing on what we reported on last week, Lenovo’s joint venture agreement with Japanese electronics firm NEC has been confirmed. Lenovo will own 51% of the venture and will have the option to purchase the remaining shares of the join venture in 2016.

If NEC were to want to sell its 49% share, Lenovo could pay as much as $275 million, which seems like a hefty premium over the $175 million in stock that Lenovo paid to NEC.

The new group will be focused on PCs, as NEC leads Japan’s PC market with 20% of shipments compared to Lenovo’s 5%, however there was specific talk of collaboration on smartphone products using Google’s Android operating system.

This deal comes after NEC reported a deepening profit loss with the October-December quarter, coming in at a $323 million net loss.

Sources: [Local Tech Wire 1 & 2]