<p>It is becoming increasingly clear that IBM CEO Ginni Rometty is annoyed with the performance of the company's systems business. Annoyed enough to spin off all or part of its System x server business to China's Lenovo Group, according to rumors that surfaced last week.</p><p>The US channel trade rag CRN broke the story of an impending x86 server deal between IBM and Lenovo and has anonymous sources that now say the deal is "moving quickly". Also, as El Reg suspected, those sources say Big Blue is keeping control of its BladeCenter blade servers and Flex System modular systems.</p><p>One rumor has it that Lenovo will pay between $5bn and $6bn for all or some of the System x business, which generated $5.6bn in sales last year and is a little more than a third of the company's overall $15.6bn in system sales, as reckoned by Gartner.</p><p>That is a lot of revenue to walk away from, but many of us suspect that IBM is bleeding hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter peddling commodity onesie and twosie x86 boxes. The company has never been a low-cost manufacturer of anything, so ditching this x86 server business might make tactical financial sense even if it is strategically dubious.</p><p><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/04/26/ibm_lenovo_deal_picks_up_steam/">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://thevarguy.com/computer-technology-hardware-solutions-and-news/ibm-s-rometty-moves-out-hardware-chief-tells-employe">IBM's Rometty Moves Out Hardware Chief, Tells Employees to Step Up</a> (The VAR Guy)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=drRO1CJwJCvmOaMPlJ8T8aDaRvtBM&ned=us">2 additional articles.</a></p>
