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• Author: International Law Group

U S. clears merger of IBM's PC division with giant Chinese computer maker

On March 8, 2005, a spokesman for both organizations announced that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a U.S. national security oversight committee, unanimously approved the acquisition of IBM's PC business by Lenovo Group Ltd., the largest PC maker in China, over the reservations of several U.S. lawmakers. In January 2005, U.S. antitrust authorities approved the deal, and Lenovo shareholders have also given it a green light. Since 1998, CFIUS, made up of 11 U.S. agencies, has been conducting security reviews of transnational business deals affecting U.S. government interests. It counts, inter alia, members of the U.S. departments of Treasury, State, Defense, Justice and Homeland Security. Lenovo has agreed to move its headquarters from Beijing to an as-yet-undisclosed site not far from IBM's main office in Armonk, New York. The merger will set up the world's third largest PC maker with roughly $12 billion in revenue and with a leading position in a number of fast-growing markets. The terms of the approval remain confidential. IBM intends to keep a 19% share in Lenovo after the merger, let Lenovo use its PC brands for five years, and hold on to PC service, financing and support operations.

Citation: Reuters News Service (via N.Y. Times online), San Francisco, Wednesday, March 9, 2005, posted at 10:20 a.m. ET.

U S. withdraws from Optional Protocol to Vienna Convention

By letter dated March 7, 2005, from the U.S. Secretary of State to the U.N. Secretary General, the United States has withdrawn from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of April 1963 [21 U.S.T. 325, 596 U.N.T.S. 487 (1969)]. The Protocol required signatory states to accept the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as the final arbiter as to whether a signatory state has denied citizens their Convention rights. The letter declares that the U.S. "hereby withdraws from the aforesaid Protocol." This action will presumably deprive the ICJ of jurisdiction to review claims of Vienna Convention violations by the U.S. Last year the Court found that the U.S. had violated the Article 36 rights of 512 detained Mexican nationals. See Case...