IBM Offloads Third of Lenovo Shares

IBM on Tuesday continued offloading its stake in Chinese manufacturer Lenovo, which bought the company's PC business and ThinkPad brand name in 2005, becoming the #3 computer maker in the world. IBM is selling 223 million shares, nearly one-third of its 7.4 percent stake in Lenovo.

The move follows the sale of 300 million Lenovo shares by IBM in February. As part of the initial $1.75 billion deal, IBM was allowed to shed a third of its stake each year, but under an agreement reached last year, it can now completely separate from Lenovo in November 2007.