I hope so, I'm sickened by all the US corporations shacking up with the communist Chinese government. But this one seems to take the cake.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1300424/posts
IBM sought a China partnership, not just a sale
In July 2003, Sam Palmisano, the chief executive of IBM, traveled to Beijing to explore the sale of the company's personal computer business. But he did not start by making the usual visit with executives of IBM's preferred partner, Lenovo, China's largest personal computer maker. Instead, Palmisano first engaged in a bit of old-fashioned courtship. Before formally approaching Lenovo, he sought permission from the parents, by meeting privately with a senior Chinese government official in charge of economic and technology policy.
IBM was not merely looking to sell its PC business, Palmisano told the official, but had bigger aspirations of creating a global enterprise, with IBM contributing technology, management, marketing and distribution.
The idea, Palmisano explained, would be to build a modern and truly international Chinese-owned corporation. The move, he added, would demonstrate China's desire to take that next step toward economic maturity by investing abroad instead of merely serving as a manufacturing hub for the rest of the world.
There were other interested bidders, including one from an American buyout firm whose offer remained on the table until the end. And the Lenovo deal could have fallen apart. But apparently the Chinese option was the only one seriously pursued by IBM.
This deal is purely an economic one for IBM. It is getting in bed with the Communists to make them richer and thus more apt to purchase IBM products in the future. Ask Bill Gates about getting in bed with the ChiComms. He used to sell loads of Windows distributions, but that dried up as soon as the ChiComms locked him out and pirated his software to the tune of 90% of users using an illicit version of Windows. Now the Chinese are publicizing a crackdown on pirated software that is nothing more than a PR stunt. The ChiComms want to get their grubby little hands on American technology to copy it and undersell us, not to build any kind of lasting business relationships. Good luck IBM, hope the dry bottom of the plunge doesn't hurt too much.