Lenovo was virtually unknown outside of China until it successfully bought over IBM's PC division in May last year and became the third-largest PC maker in the world.

Formerly known as Legend, the Chinese giant--which sells a range of products including PCs, cell phones and electronic goods--changed its 20-year-old English brand name to Lenovo in 2003 for its expansion into overseas markets.

Lenovo revealed it had successfully turned around IBM's fledging PC business when it announced its third-quarter results in January 2006. The company posted a US$49 million profit on sales of US$4 billion.

As part of its brand building efforts, Lenovo inked an agreement to sponsor computer equipment for the Winter Olympics held earlier this year in the Italian city of Turin, as well as the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

In November, the company announced that it will provide its large enterprise customers with the option of removing the IBM logo from Lenovo's computers by the end of 2006.

Lenovo ranks among ZDNet Asia's Top 10 fastest-growing companies for 2006/07.

This company is listed in Systems.