Lawmakers Urge Longer Probe of IBM, Lenovo

Republican chairmen of three congressional committees urged the Bush administration to lengthen a probe of IBM Corp.’s pending $1.25-billion sale of its personal-computer business to China’s Lenovo Group.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, Duncan Hunter of El Cajon and Donald A. Manzullo of Illinois said the government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which Snow chairs, should extend research into whether the transaction posed a national security threat.

The deal was approved by Lenovo shareholders.

From Bloomberg News

* Internet service provider EarthLink Inc. and South Korea’s largest cellphone carrier, SK Telecom Co., agreed to form a joint venture to sell wireless voice and data services popular in Asia to the United States. The venture will lease network capacity from Sprint Corp.