In an interview today with Sina Tech (link via Google Translate), Dilip Bhatia, vice president and general manager of Lenovo’s ThinkPad Business Unit, said that the Chinese tech company may build a Think-brand smartphone. If Lenovo does come out with a Think-brand smartphone (a ThinkPhone?), it would be inline with the company’s growth strategy. Lenovo is currently the world’s second largest marker of PCs behind HP, but is eager to diversify its core businesses by aggressively growing its mobile unit.

Bhatia told Sina Tech that the company wants the Think brand, which includes ThinkPad laptops, to gain higher name recognition and desirability among younger consumers. Lenovo has already fared well with its current suite of smartphones: in Q42012, its smartphone business grew 216 percent year-over-year, shipping 9.5 million units and moving into the top five smartphone vendors in the world for the first time, according to data from Canalys. Much of that growth has been fueled, however, by the sale of low-end devices in China, and Lenovo is still searching for ways to gain a larger share of the global market.

A high-end smartphone released under its flagship Think brand may serve as Lenovo’s answer to the iPhone and allow it to compete more directly with Apple (CEO Yang Yuanqing has said that he wants Lenovo to overtake the Cupertino company).

Other steps Lenovo has taken to build out its mobile business include building a $800 million facility in China that will produce smartphones and tablets. The company has also been busy looking at acquisitions, a tactic it took in 2005 when it acquired the ThinkPad brand by purchasing IBM’s PC division. Reports emerged last week that Japan’s NEC is in talks to sell its struggling mobile phone business to Lenovo, and earlier this year BlackBerry was rumored to be another potential acquisition target. Lenovo denied the reports, but purchasing BlackBerry would have allowed it to gain access to a new OS and the Canadian company’s subscriber base.

Lenovo has been emailed for comment

Editor’s note: Jason M. Lemkin served as CEO and co-founder of EchoSign, the web’s most popular e-signature service, from inception through its acquisition by Adobe Systems in 2011. Follow him on his SaaS-focused blog, on Quora, and on Twitter.

If you are in a reasonably hot and/or interesting space, and you have a modicum of traction (or perhaps even perceived traction), after X months or X years (likely years in SaaS), you’ll probably have a day when you get an M&A nibble. And later, two or three or four.

The nibble can come in several forms and, more importantly, from several actors. In my experience at least (maybe 10 serious nibbles across four startups – two as a co-founder), there seem to be about four types of nibbles, and your responses and expectations should vary according to which one you get.

1.  The CEO/CFO Nibble

This is the easy one. If Marc Benioff or Mark Zuckerberg email you or call you up about “getting together,” you know you’ve got a high-probability offer at a high price. Be ready for it.

At a smaller scale, this is what happened with the first start-up I co-founded, NanoGram Devices. Okay, it was the CFO on authority of the CEO, but basically the same thing. The CFO asked to meet directly, discretely, after a conference.  He said to us: “We want to acquire you.  Go shop the deal if you want — we’ll pay more than anyone else.” Well, okay then. Crystal clear. Not that the deal itself was that easy (the diligence was painful), but everything else was fast, simple, and easy. These deals are the best ones, with the best prices and the least drama. No one sweats the small stuff.

2.  The SVP Of The Business Unit Nibble

While this one isn’t as serious as No. 1, it’s still ranks highly. Most M&A less than $100-$200 million is really driven by the head of a business unit, the SVP, not the CEO of the acquirer. If he or she wants to meet personally and talk about “synergies,” you’ll know it’s serious. But the thing is, they aren’t the CEO. So all it really means is that it is serious. Nothing may happen, and he or she is probably also looking at your competitors. And even if it does happen, it could take months or years if there’s no sense of urgency or, more importantly, fear.

3.  The SVP Of Corporate Development Nibble

Here’s where it starts to get a bit counter-intuitive. In most tech leaders, corporate development, no matter how senior, doesn’t create deals. They execute them. So if you get a nibble from the SVP of corporate development, it probably means someone is very serious. Someone else - someone senior (the CEO or an SVP) who had asked the SVP of corp dev to look at you seriously. This means there’s genuine interest, but a lower probability of a real deal than No. 1 or  No. 2, if for no other reason that you are several steps and a full SVP away from the actual decision-maker.

4.  The Director/Manager Of Corporate Development Nibble

And now here’s the other that can throw you for a loop. Not only is this nibble not from the business unit that might acquire you, it’s from someone more junior in corp dev. Here’s the thing. On the one hand, these guys probably look at 30-100 companies a year, so don’t read too much into the email. On the other hand, it’s often a way to start a dialogue that can lead to something real. Sometimes, they’re looking for information on the top 2-4 players in a sector.

Sometimes, they are sounding things out on behalf of an SVP who wants to see if there’s interest before they reach out. The motives can vary. What it doesn’t mean is BigCo Is Interested in Buying You. But it does mean there’s at least a vague interest that may take years to come to fruition. For example, at EchoSign we first met with the corp dev guys in 2006. And were acquired in 2011. Five years later! But no matter what, building relationships is important.

So when the nibbles come — and they will come if you are successful — take all the meetings in order to learn. But take them as seriously as they are ranked above.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Will the TouchPad ride again? HP apparently just internally announced a new division focused on mobile within the Personal Systems Group. This new team, named in HP’s traditional jargon, Mobility Global Business Unit, is essentially responsible for getting HP back in the tablet fight.

Details are still a bit light. This word comes from a leaked memo obtained by the The Verge. The memo says in part, “With this move, we are building on our commitment to re-invest in mobility via dedicated leadership, focused research and development, amazing new products and a growing suite of applications and services.” It sounds like HP is finally getting serious about tablets.

Once upon a time, HP simply purchased Palm to lead the company into the mobile arena. But that $1.2 billion purchase didn’t work out in terms of hardware. After initially committing to double down on webOS, the company launched the HP TouchPad, a quality tablet that never had a chance thanks to its high price and lack of developer support. However, with the purchase of Palm, HP acquired 1,500 of Palms patents — it’s likely HP is ready to build upon the foundation laid by Palm.

This new unit will initially focus on consumer tablets, but will eventually grow and expand into new categories and segments (smartphones?), says the memo. The group is under the PSG, which is headed by Toddy Bradley. However, HP turned to Alberto Torres, ex-executive vice president of Nokia, to lead this new unit. Torres previously led Nokia’s MeeGo effort. Torres is also currently the vice-chairman of Bang & Olufsen, a high-end audio company that prides itself on forward-thinking designs. And HP needs all the design help it can get.

HP also currently has a tablet nearing release. The memo notes that tablet, along with the existing notebook teams, will in the PC unit and under the leadership of James Mouton. Or, put a different way, the good tablets will come later.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

TechCrunch is currently missing <%=Fucks%> to give to Forbes. We expect to add more into our posts in <%=deadline%>.

Responds our more serious than me co-editor Eric Eldon, ”Our disappointing F-Bomb second quarter 2012 financial results and outlook for the third quarter 2012 illustrates that our F-Bomb business continues to be in the midst of transition. Within our F-Bomb business unit, we have established early momentum with F-Bomb+, and we are increasing our investments in F-Bomb+ to achieve market success.”

I have no idea what the fuck that means because there are numbers in there. Even if I did understand what that meant, I probably wouldn’t give a fuck anyways.

Also, TechCrunch Disrupt SF. Also also, TechCrunch CrunchUp/August Capital Party. 

TechCrunch, fuck yeah.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

If you thought the 4.5-Inch LCD screen with 720