In 2003, IBM co-founded the US-based GridWise Alliance that advocates for grid modernization, and in 2007, IBM formed the Global Intelligent Utility Network Coalition (GIUNC), a coalition of players in the energy and utilities market, which is helping accelerate the adoption and use of smart grid technologies and bringing digital intelligence to current systems.

ENGADGET: IBM announces Smarter Energy Research Institute, aims to improve energy grids (video)

"They are pretty willing now to help us integrate some interesting non-IBM products, " says John Henderson, a buyer at a large Indianapolis-based medical products distributor.

CNN: IBM, the world's oldest start-up

Within its bowels, Lenovo has some of the DNA of the old IBM, the US firm from which Lenovo bought the enterprise PC division in the mid-2000s.

FORBES: Endpoints Ready For The Cloud

If IBM recorded major acquisition-related write-downs in the past five years, please remind us.

FORBES: Connect