MORRISVILLE – Lenovo revenues climbed to a three-year fourth quarter best of $12.94 billion to close out 2017 but the technology giant still took a $289 million loss after taking a $400 million charge it linked to changes in U.S. tax law.

The company also said its goal of restoring profitability to its mobile phone business was being pushed back.

“We will further improve the profitability, but probably break-even will not happen in the next quarter,” Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing told Reuters in reference to the mobile business.

Overall revenues did climb from $12.17 billion year-over-year as Lenovo reported growth in its PC business in the quarterly earnings report released early Thursday in Hong Kong where its stock is traded.

Its data center business remained in the red, although losses were cut.

Lenovo has struggled with its mobile and data center businesses since deals with Google and IBM respectively in 2014.

Overall, Yang is optimistic about where Lenovo stands. He also amplified on earlier reports that Lenovo was opening retail outlets in China. Yang cited a goal of 1,000 stores, according to Reuters.

“Lenovo is accelerating its transformation to become a world leader across every part of our business,” he said in a statement.

“We continue to see significant improvement and strong performance in some of the most exciting technology market sectors, smart devices and data center. We saw revenue, margins, profit, innovation, performance and customer experience all extend the momentum that developed during the prior quarter, and these results reaffirm the transformation strategy we are executing.”

Lenovo operates one of its two global headquarters in Morrisville. The other is in Beijing.

Business highlights

Highlights as cited by Lenovo in the earnings report:

PC and Smart Devices (PCSD) business group:

  • Shipped 15.7 million PC units, flat year-over-year. Revenue grew 7.6 percent compared to last year’s Q3 to US$9.3 billion, and up 10.4 percent from the prior quarter – the 5th consecutive quarter of year-to-year revenue growth. The company maintained its industry-leading margin.
  • Momentum was particularly strong across the globe with double-digit revenue growth year-over-year in EMEA, Asia Pacific (AP) and Latin America (LA).
  • Latin America’s performance stood out with Lenovo market share now at 20% driven by strong growth in Brazil.

 Data Center Group (DCG):

  • Highest quarter revenue in two years at US$1.2 billion, up 16.7 percent year over year and 25.5 percent sequentially.
  • All geographies achieved double-digit growth and margin improvement. North America and EMEA saw their third straight quarter of year-over-year revenue growth.
  • China returned to year-over-year revenue growth and margin improvement, thanks to a stabilized Hyperscale business and success with High Performance Computing and Software Defined Infrastructure.
  • Extended number one ranking in x86 customer satisfaction, according to TBR (Technology Business Research), for the 8th straight quarter. Additionally the team added 88 new world record workload benchmarks – four times more than any other industry player.

 Mobile Business Group (MBG):

  • Revenue of US$2.1 billion was down 5 percent from a year earlier, but flat compared to the prior quarter.
  • Latin America remained the strong core of the business, seeing double-digit revenue growth (+37%) and strong profitability.
  • 5 million Moto Z handsets have now been shipped globally, with activation rates for MODS up 64% year-to-year.
  • Lenovo saw the Moto brand strengthen in Western Europe, with shipments up 23 percent compared to the same period a year ago.