None other than the man affectionately called “YY” is firing up talk again that Lenovo could end up owning all or at least part of IBM’s struggling server business. Plus, he’s adding to expectations that Lenovo smartphones will be coming to the U.S. as soon as 2014.

In interviews with Bloomberg and with the Wall Street Journal over the last two days, Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing has stated quite clearly that servers are now a major point of emphasis. 

“Today’s market share is too small,” Yang told Bloomberg. “If we can get a good acquisition, probably we could speed up the process.”

Lenovo already has a server joint venture with EMC, but Yang obviously has something else in mind. And Lenovo loves acquisitions as the chart with this story clearly documents.

IBM’s Lemon Becomes Lemonade

And most talk in recent weeks has centered on a possible IBM-Lenovo deal. They are very familiar with each other, given that Lenovo took IBM’s troubled and fading PC business off Big Blue’s hands in 2005. Yang would’t respond to whether deal talks involve IBM.

However, Lenovo is raising debt in Hong Kong, Singapore and London with U.S.-dollar backed bonds. Speculation is Lenovo wants to raise $1 billion or more. The company also has a lot of cash already – more than $3 billion. In two separate notices to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Lenovo has said deal talks are ongoing although the focus of that talk has been some sort of a smartphone deal.

Two weeks ago, Lenovo’s CFO said he saw no limits on the size of a deal.

Now, Yang talks specifically about wanting to grow server share. 

You read the tea leaves and … 

Lenovo turned what then-IBM top guy Sam Palmisano as a lemon into a lot of lemonade, becoming the world’s No. 2 PC manufacturer with a global footprint and a momentum that could lift it past HP at any time.

But with the PC business is suffering, YY wants more server sales and 60 million smartphone shipments – triple the number of a year ago. He’s also pushing tablets – some of which are already being built in the U.S. at the new assembly line in Whitsett, N.C. which Lenovo showed off on Wednesday. 

“We Want to Win”

Already No. 2 in phones in China, Lenovo is taking phones into other emerging markets at a rapid pace. The “K” phone touted by Kobe Bryant is a big bet.

And mature markets such as the U.S. are a Lenovo target despite a crowded field.

Yang knows if his “PC Plus” strategy is to be successful that Lenovo must be a global player in smartphones as well as servers and modible Internet connected devices. 

He told Bloomberg he is “confident: that Lenovo phones will be competitive in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere despite the presence of giants Apple and Samsung.

And his track record shows Yang should not be underestimated.

After all, who ever thought that Lenovo in 2005 would be battling to become No. 1 in PCs by 2013.

Says YY: We want to win.”

[LENOVO ARCHIVE: Check out eight years of Lenovo stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]

[IBM ARCHIVE: Check out more than a decade of IBM stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]