The Chinese computer manufacturing company Lenovo is not one to let its plans go awry so easily, nor does it accept defeat without a serious fight. Even as the company still has yet to completely integrate the European arm of the former IBM personal computer and notebook producing division, Lenovo still has many more expansion plans as it tries to break free from the Asian market and migrate to Europe and the United States.

In order to defeat its main opponent and grab a significant market share in Europe, the Chinese computer manufacturer would need the help of an already established European company and here is where the ailing Packard Bell comes into play. Unfortunately for Lenovo, other companies were quicker to react and moved in closer to acquiring themselves the European computer producer.

The United States based Gateway, itself the subject of an important acquisition plan launched by Acer, looks equally interested in buying Packard Bell, while leaving Lenovo, a competing company out in the cold. "Packard Bell is a great fit, and we're still very interested," Lenovo Chief Executive Bill Amelio told reporters in Beijing and he was cited by the news site zdnet. "It's not over until it's over."

While Lenovo is not actively engaged in talks with Packard Bell right now, it is very interested in acquiring this company as it is in the middle of an intense battle over global market shares with opponents like Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer that would soon eliminate the Chinese company from the select top three of the most important hardware manufacturers in the world.

Bill Amelio also said that while his company is interested in other acquisition plans as well, it is very unlikely that any of them will have the scale of the purchase of IBM's global PC business in 2005. "We are still not through our entire acquisition process with the two companies," he said.