text: Lenovo (known at the time as Legend) became publicly traded after a 1994 Hong Kong IPO that raised nearly  at  per share. Prior to the IPO, many analysts were optimistic about Lenovo. On its first day of trading, the company's stock price hit a high of  and closed at  suggesting an initial under-valuing of the company. Proceeds from the offering were used to finance sales offices in Europe, North America and Australia, to expand and improve production and research and development, and to increase working capital.
  By 1996, Lenovo was the market leader in China and began selling its own laptop. By 1998 it held 43 per cent of the domestic computer market share in China, selling approximately one million computers.
  Lenovo released its Tianxi () computer in 1998. Designed to make it easy for inexperienced Chinese consumers to use computers and access the internet, one of its most important features was a button that instantly connected users to the internet and opened the Web browser. It was co-branded with China Telecom and it was bundled with one year of Internet service. The Tianxi was released in 1998. It was the result of two years of research and development. It had a pastel-colored, shell-shaped case and a seven-port USB hub under its screen. As of 2000, the Tianxi was the best-selling computer in Chinese history. It sold more than 1,000,000 units in 2000 alone.
  1999–2010: IBM purchase and sale of smartphone division