Dell CEO's attack on Lenovo is both ignominious and irresponsible; what he said does not mach his position, Lenovo Greater China Region's head Chen Shaopeng said at a telephone conference held Thursday afternoon after foreign media's report "Dell CEO says Lenovo's growth deteriorating" was published on Internet on Thursday morning.

Chen said what Dell attacked is not only Lenovo, but Chinese enterprises. However, Dell claimed it did not attack any competitor. The translation of the report is not accurate.

Dell CEO's remarks enraged Lenovo

The report about Dell CEO's remarks was carried on portals including sina.com yesterday. According to the report, Dell CEO Kevin Rollins said on Wednesday when answering questions at an investor's conference held by Goldman Sachs, "Really, they are still very China-centric." "If you look at where they'd grown, where their profitability resides, it's still a Chinese business." He said Lenovo had "questionable" profitability. "Their growth is actually deteriorating. The question is, can they continue to compete globally, versus continuing to compete in China," Rollins said. "It's why they changed their CEO, I assume."

Lenovo convened a telephone conference in response to Rollins remarks at 3:30 pm Thursday. "With reference to Dell CEO's irresponsible remarks about Lenovo carried on the Internet, Lenovo deems the remarks do not match Dell's identity as a global leading company. It plays a very ignominious role in the whole event," Chen Shaopeng said.

Chen motioned about the "mail incident" of 2005 a couple of times at the conference. He said Lenovo's competitor created the "mail incident" maliciously. This time, Dell made irrational remarks about Lenovo. It can be speculated that this is not a coincidence, but is carefully arranged. Lenovo is angry about it. Chen said, "We can speculate this is arranged by our rival. The difference is, this time it is Dell CEO's public remarks. We think this is also Dell Inc's stand. In general, his remarks are very negative for Lenovo. They have made too much irresponsible remarks."

Chen spoke very fast at the conference lasting less than 15 minutes. He stressed time and again that Lenovo is proud to be a Chinese enterprise, and he rebutted Rollins' remarks by the fact that Lenovo has reaped profits in the three quarters after the acquisition of IBM PC sector.

Chen told reporters he did not get authorization from the headquarters in the US, and he only represents Lenovo Greater China region. But Yang Yuanqing, chairman of the board of Lenovo Group Limited, has known about this. The headquarters will respond to Rollins' remarks later.

Dell denies attacking rival

Dell China seems not aware of the CEO's remarks.

The spokesperson of Dell China said she just heard about it and was very surprised when interviewed. She said Rollins gave a speech at an analyst conference held by Goldman Sachs on Thursday. Such questions as "how do you look at Lenovo" and "what is your opinion about Amelio's taking over as Lenovo CEO" were raised there.

Rollins gave his viewpoints to the questions, which is very common at any analyst conference. "Mr. Rollins did not make any disrespectful remarks about its competitors. On the contrary, he had shown respect to rivals including Lenovo on separate occasions," the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson raised doubt on the translation of foreign meida's report. She said what Rollins said is "it's still a Chinese business." He did not say the word "company", therefore the Chinese report published on Internet is not accurate in saying "Dell CEO says Lenovo is a Chinese company."

Rollins' words about William Amelio, the ex-Dell exec who took over as Lenovo's CEO is another focal point. He said, "Some have left because they were drawn away by an opportunity we could not give them. Some, we were fine with them leaving." "And you'll have to figure out which is which �� If there is someone who just wants desperately to have a CEO title, they're not going to get it at Dell," Rollins said. "They'll have to get it somewhere else."

The spokesperson said Dell always respects employee's choice. And what Rollins said is not inappropriate because it is the fact.

Competition is the main cause

Dell did not show discontent since Amelio took over as Lenovo's CEO last year, which is regarded as a sign of compromise between Lenovo and Dell after the incident of "mail".

But this is not the case for Guo Haitao, a veteran analyst. Guo said this controversy is a typical case of conflict caused by market competition. Lenovo has posed influence over global PC market after it took over IBM PC business. Its launch of "Lenovo" PCs in the US not long ago has given more pressures on Dell. Moreover, its hiring of senior exec of Dell, and launch of customer patterns similar to Dell's, as well as attempts to offer direct sales online, are all severe impacts on Dell. From this point, the conflict is unavoidable.

Lenovo has seen big rise in share price and won many awards since the successful integration. Lenovo will bring more troubles to its rivals, said Zhu Guang, PR director of Lenovo Group. He thought it is inappropriate to comment on business rivals for no reason.

"Lenovo has encountered 'mail incident' and 'advertisement incident' since it acquired IBM PC sector. This indicates an orderly competition pattern is needed in the industry," Guo said.

By People's Daily Online