Liu Chuanzhi, the 75-years-old entrepreneur and founder of Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo, will step down as chairman from Legend Holdings, the sole controlling shareholder of Lenovo, by the end of this week, Beijing News reported.
Hong Kong-listed Legend Holdings will officially announce the news on Wednesday after the trading session. According to multiple local media, 50-years-old Ning Min, currently senior vice president and CFO of Legend Holdings, will take Liu’s position.
Liu founded Legend Group in Beijing in 1984, with a capital of about RMB 200,000 (USD 28,500), together with 10 coworkers from the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), where Liu served as an engineer-administrator. The company was then rebranded as Lenovo in 2003 for its expansion to the overseas market.
In 2005, Lenovo completed the acquisition of IBM’s PC business, becoming the third-largest personal computer company in the world, a landmark deal that many observers consider as a turning point for China’s technology industry.
In 2011, Liu stepped down as Lenovo’s chairman to focus more on the parent company Legend Holding’s operation, which covers multiple fields including IT, financial services, innovative consumption and services, agriculture and food, and new materials. At the same time, Lenovo announced its position as the world’s second-largest PC vendor with a market share of 13.5%, as reported in the company’s second fiscal quarter report of 2011.
Currently, Lenovo is the world’s largest PC vendor with a market share of 24.7% as of the third quarter of 2019, according to research firm Gartner, followed by Hp Inc with 22.4%, and Dell with 16.6% in the third place.
Legend Holdings Corp’s stock price inched up by 1.56% to HKD 16.96 (USD 2.20) to date, with a market cap of HKD 39.4 billion (USD 5 billion).