Lenovo buys PC maker Medion

It's business as usual, at least for the time being, according to Medion in the UK after the news broke that the German computer firm had been bought by Lenovo.

Whether the deal will mean changes for Medion customers in the UK in the long term is not yet clear. After we called the company's UK offices this morning, we were told that as far as the UK arm knew, no immediate changes were in the offing.

We are still waiting to hear from Lenovo to find out what its next steps may be.

The acquisition of Medion, valued at £555.53m gives the Chinese company a strong foothold in the European consumer PC market. It is Lenovo's biggest acquisition since 2005 when it took over IBM's PC unit.

However, it faces a tough market. According to a research by Gartner, consumer spending on PCs, especially netbooks has been steadily declining over the past three years.

The analyst said PC shipments to the UK in the first quarter of 2011, fell by 17.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2010; making the UK market the worst performing of the first three major markets in western Europe

Gartner said consumers were holding back spending on these goods and investing in other devices such as tablets.