<P> This joint venture was intended to boost Lenovo's worldwide sales by expanding its presence in Japan, a key market for personal computers . NEC spun off its personal computer business into the joint venture . As of 2010, NEC controlled about 20% of Japan's market for personal computers while Lenovo had a 5% share . Lenovo and NEC also agreed to explore cooperating in other areas such as servers and tablet computers . </P> <P> Roderick Lappin, chairman of the Lenovo - NEC joint venture, told the press that the two companies will expand their co-operation to include the development of tablet computers . </P> <P> In April 2014, Lenovo purchased a portfolio of patents from NEC related to mobile technology . These included over 3,800 patent families in countries around the world . The purchase included standards - essential patents for 3G and LTE cellular technologies and other patents related to smartphones and tablets . </P> <P> In June 2011, Lenovo announced that it planned to acquire control of Medion, a German electronics manufacturing company . Lenovo said the acquisition would double its share of the German computer market, making it the third - largest vendor by sales (after Acer and Hewlett - Packard). The deal, which closed in the third quarter of the same year, was the first in which a Chinese company acquired a well - known German company . </P>

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