Samsung To Reportedly Sell Underperforming PC Business To Lenovo

Lenovo is already a juggernaut in the PC business, as it has sat atop the global leaderboard for the past few years. However, its share of the PC market could get a little bit bigger if reports coming out of South Korea are indeed accurate.

According to The Korea Herald, in an effort to divest itself of underperforming and unprofitable business units, Samsung is looking to sell its PC business. Lenovo is reportedly in talks to acquire the unit in a deal that could be worth $850 million. This move comes just months after Samsung sold its printer unit to HP Inc. for just over $1 billion.

“Considering the close business relationship between PCs and printers, it seems quite obvious that Samsung, after its PC business sell-off, is withdrawing from the PC market,” said an unnamed former Samsung exec about the possibility of the sale.

Samsung ArtPC Pulse

While enthusiasts likely know that Samsung makes desktops and notebooks, its PC products aren’t nearly as well-known as its smartphones, tablets, televisions and appliances. While Samsung’s PC division seems likely to change hands, its unit that produces super-fast solid state drives like the SSD 960 Pro isn’t going anywhere.

In recent months, we’ve seen Samsung’s PC unit tackle the Chrome OS market with the swanky 2.3-pound Chromebook Pro that includes a 12.3-inch 2400x1600 touch screen display and a hexa-core ARMv8 processor paired with 4GB of RAM.

But perhaps its most eye-catching PC was announced in October. The ArtPC Pulse is a cylindrical desktop that somewhat recalls Apple’s Mac Pro in appearance. It is powered by sixth generation Intel Core processors and manages to incorporate Radeon RX 460 graphics and NVMe SSDs. The ArtPC Pules also features a built-in 360-degree omni-directional Harman Kardon speaker.