Lenovo sells its products in around 160 countries. Lenovo's principal facilities are in Beijing and Morrisville, with research centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Chengdu, Nanjing, and Wuhan in China, Yamato in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and Morrisville in the U.S. It also has a joint venture with NEC, Lenovo NEC Holdings, which produces personal computers for the Japanese market. Lenovo was founded in Beijing in November 1984 as Legend and was incorporated in Hong Kong in 1988. Lenovo acquired IBM's personal computer business in 2005 and agreed to acquire its Intel-based server business in 2014. Lenovo entered the smartphone market in
Lenovo "As a Japanese, I am glad to see the return to domestic production and the goal is to realize full-scale production as this will improve our image and make the products more acceptable to Japanese customers." In October 2012, Lenovo announced that it would start assembling computers in Whitsett, North Carolina. Production of desktop and laptop computers, including the ThinkPad Helix began in January 2013. , 115 workers were employed at this facility. Lenovo has been in Whitsett since 2008, where it also has centers for logistics, customer service, and return processing. In 2015, Lenovo and Hong Kong Cyberport Management