Lenovo, the world's fourth largest PC manufacturer, is considering acquiring Brazil's largest PC maker Positivo, which Dell is also reported interested in buying.

Senior officials from Lenovo recently visited the headquarter of Positivo in Curitiba, a southwest city in Brazil and showed great interest in buying into the company, local newspaper Estado de S. Paulo reported.

"Due to the global financial crisis, the market value of many companies has shrunk a lot. We hope to take this opportunity to acquire some of those companies to consolidate our market share," Huang Weiming, chief financial officer of Lenovo, said earlier.

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), Positivo accounted for 21.4 percent of the retail computer market in the third quarter in Brazil, while its market value has dropped to 1.157 billion yuan (US$169 million) due to the global financial crisis.

Lenovo had US$1.8 billion in cash by the end this June, according to its financial statement.

The Chinese company saw its sales increase 180 percent and 100 percent in Russia and India this year respectively.

Brazil, as well as India and Russia, is among the key markets that Lenovo is planning to explore.

The company hopes to transplant its experiences in China into these countries.

(China Daily December 9, 2008)