NEC gets permission to sell its stake in Lenovo

JAPANESE ELECTRONICS GIANT NEC has been granted permission to sell 281.1 million shares in the Chinese computer maker Lenovo.

Lenovo, which is poised to overtake HP as the world's largest computer manufacturer, has waived a restriction that was in place to stop NEC from selling its stake in the company. NEC can now sell its 281.1 million shares in Lenovo, which are worth around $240m.

NEC has a 51 percent stake in Lenovo as part of a joint-venture between the two firms. Like many such deals, Lenovo stipulated that NEC could not sell its shares in the firm for two years from the closing date of deal, which was 1 July 2011.

Lenovo however waived the restriction, allowing NEC to sell its stake in the firm at any point. NEC, which some years ago was in the PC business itself, has been caught up in its own troubles, not least of which is its stake in DRAM manufacturer Elpida.

It is interesting to see NEC's eagerness to dump shares in Lenovo, just about the only PC vendor that has anything going for it as the desktop and laptop PC markets stagnate. Perhaps NEC sees Lenovo going in only one direction after it overtakes HP. µ