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IBM's Batty: No takeover of PC business

Ah, a denial story and we didn't even ask

Big Blue said today that despite the fact it has totally re-vamped its Emea strategy, there was no truth that it was going to sell off its beleaguered personal computer division. Ken Batty, well known as being the manager of RS/6000 marketing for many years and who now runs the marketing for the personal systems group in the UK, said: "Rumours that we're selling out to HP or Dell are completely untrue." (Nobody had asked him that question). He said, however: "IBM's personal system company was not exactly in good shape. If I had £1 for every time IBM said it was going to fix something, I could sit at home and bask in the in the interest." On desktops, Batty said: "Our costs were too high, our products were too borning and nobody thinks we're serious. The whole management team has been replaced in the UK." He said that right now it was impossible for IBM Direct in the UK to do next day delivery. Now that Batty's in charge, everything will be different. "IBM is completely serious about its PC business," he said. "We'll be number one in the next three years." He said the ThinkPad range was acknowledged as the coolest and best selling notebook around, beating Toshiba. "At the London Fashion Week, models were carrying Nefinitys, sorry ThinkPads," he said. "There's no reason why the desktop product should not be something you want to be seen on your desktop." He said IBM was investing millions and expanding its sales team to address the PC market, which embraces notebooks, thin clients, desktops and Netfinity servers. ®

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