August 9th early morning news, according to internal confirmation from Lenovo, Lenovo has obtained exclusive negotiation rights with European PC manufacturer Packard Bell, and rival Acer may have been eliminated from the acquisition competition early on.
On the evening of August 7th at 20:07, Lenovo Group issued an announcement confirming its intention to acquire Packard Bell. Prior to this, Sina Technology had reported that Acer's rumored acquisition target for a long time was also Packard Bell.
Yesterday, according to foreign media reports, Packard Bell's boss Chris Hui denied that Acer had participated in the bidding war. Notably, Acer's senior PR manager Tom Wang hinted in mid-July that Acer was indeed in discussions with Packard Bell regarding a merger.
Industry insiders believe that Chris Hui's denial of Acer's involvement not only verifies the statement that "Lenovo has obtained exclusive negotiation rights," but also reflects the progress of the negotiations to some extent. An unverified claim by Lenovo's official sources suggests that both parties have basically agreed on the cooperation terms and are just waiting for an official announcement, indicating that Acer has been eliminated from the race early on.
The constraint of "exclusive negotiation rights" lies in the fact that currently, Packard Bell can only negotiate with Lenovo, and is not allowed to make any overtures to other companies. Unless the talks break down, Packard Bell will not be able to engage in acquisition-related discussions with other companies.
It is also understood that the main responsibility for this acquisition negotiation falls on Lenovo Group's overseas team, with little participation from Lenovo's Greater China region, which is therefore unable to comment on the matter.