Lenovo

Lenovo is best known for computers - ThinkPad laptops, Legion gaming machines, servers and workstations - and is one of the largest PC makers in the world. Its phone business runs under the Motorola name.

Both of those came from acquisitions that looked risky at the time and did not turn out that way. In 2005 it bought IBM's personal computer division, and with it ThinkPad, a brand with a devoted following that most observers expected a Chinese buyer to dilute. In 2014 it bought Motorola Mobility from Google for USD 2.91 billion, and Motorola has since found a durable position: strong in Latin America and India, and the manufacturer that kept the razr name attached to a folding phone.

The company was founded on 1 November 1984 in Beijing by Liu Chuanzhi and a group of engineers. It is worth being clear about one thing: Motorola Mobility is not Motorola Solutions. The original Motorola split in 2011, the phone half went to Google and then to Lenovo, and the radio and public safety business remains a separate American company with no connection to this listing.