Lenovo CEO Is Out; Chinese Execs Return

They were the Dream Team of China's drive to build its first truly global brand: Yang Yuanqing, the computer scientist from the Chinese countryside who at age 40 became chairman of Lenovo, and William Amelio, the American chief executive lured from Dell (DELL) to become CEO. The two joined forces in 2005 after Lenovo, the country's largest PC company, acquired the PC division of IBM (IBM). With Yang focusing on strategy and Amelio zeroing in on production, the pair had an ambitious goal of building on Lenovo's success in China to take on heavyweights Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell in markets worldwide.

On Feb. 5, the dream ended. With the PC industry in turmoil and Lenovo losing ground to rivals, the company announced a $97 million loss for the quarter ended December, compared with a $172 million profit for the same period in 2007. Sales for the quarter dropped 20%, to $3.6 billion from $4.5 billion. And, the company announced, Yang is replacing Amelio as CEO, with the American staying on "in an advisory capacity" until September. Despite the setbacks Lenovo has faced, "I'm pleased with what we have accomplished as a team," said Amelio in a statement.