IBM said on February 28 that it has signed an agreement with China's Great Wall Technology in which Great Wall will make and sell Big Blue's computer hard disk drives for the world market.
IBM said in a statement that a Great Wall subsidiary, Shenzhen ExcelStor Technology, will manufacture the 40GB version of IBM's newly released Deskstar 120GXP desktop drive.
The deal, the first of its kind for China, would create more than 3,000 new jobs at a new plant in China's southern city of Shenzhen. But the company would not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
The first ExcelStor-made drive is expected to be available in the second half of 2002, it said.
Under the three-year deal, IBM will sell its 3.5-inch, Deskstar 120GXP drives manufactured by ExcelStor under the IBM brand worldwide, and ExcelStor will also develop and market the drives under its own brand through an intellectual property license from IBM.
Great Wall said earlier that IBM would pay US$9 million for a further 10 percent stake in their joint venture, International Products, which assembles IBM personal computers for sale in China and Southeast Asia.
After the deal, IBM China would hold 80 percent of International Products, and another unit of Great Wall would have the remaining 20 percent.
IBM and Great Wall also have other joint ventures in China, including circuit card manufacturer Shenzhen GKI Electronics and storage products maker Shenzhen Hailiang Storage Products.
(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2002)
