While the Lenovo brand came into existence only in 2004, the company has a much longer history. In 1984, Legend Holdings was formed with 25,000 RMB in a guard house in China. The company was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988 and would grow to be the largest PC company in China. Legend Holdings changed its name to Lenovo in 2004 and, in 2005, acquired the former Personal Computer Division of IBM, the company that invented the PC industry in 1981.
Today, Lenovo is a US$21 billion personal technology company and the world's second-largest PC vendor. We have more than 26,000 employees in more than 60 countries serving customers in more than 160 countries. A global Fortune 500 company, we have headquarters in Beijing, China and Morrisville, North Carolina, U.S.; major research centers in Yokohama, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Morrisville; and we have manufacturing around the world from Greensboro, North Carolina and Monterrey, Mexico to India, China and Brazil.
We create and build exceptionally engineered personal technology, but we are much more than a tech company. We are defining a new way of doing things as a next generation global company. We have our core strength in China, rapid growth in emerging markets and a unique global footprint. Lenovo builds on its dominant position in China to grow globally. The expansion from East to West— introducing our newest products in China and then spreading across the globe— is a new way of viewing the world, one we believe will be the way of the future.
That means we are years ahead of the game in terms of understanding what it will take to win 5 or even 10 years from now. That focus on the future is based on a strong history of success that is driving results today.
We have momentum. Long the leader in China with more than 30 percent market share in PCs, Lenovo is growing rapidly and winning market share in all parts of the world. Lenovo has realized strong, balanced growth while achieving a number of major breakthroughs. Achieving optimal balance in all that we do is Lenovo's operating philosophy. This mindset encompasses every aspect of Lenovo's business, from balancing leadership with consensus-building, to valuing both short- and longterm thinking. As a result, we have created a balanced business model and strategy that take maximum advantage of profit and investment across both core and new businesses.
Lenovo has consistently outgrown the worldwide PC market in unit shipments and gained market share across all geographies, products and customer segments, making it the fastest growing of the four major PC companies in the world for two years running.