Lenovo laid off what it described as a "small" number of employees and contractors last week at its headquarters in Morrisville.

The moves were made as part of Lenovo’s efforts to diversify into products beyond PCs, a strategy that the company has dubbed "PC Plus."

"The staffing reductions are limited to roles that are no longer required as we rebalance our skills, function by function, department by department to focus more on our PC Plus strategy," Ray Gorman, a company spokesman, said in an email.

"It’s a small enough number that we will not be announcing or reporting it."

Registration is open for the regional Build Your Own PC Charity Race that will be held at TigerDirect's Raleigh location. Electronics retailer TigerDirect has partnered with computing giant Lenovo to produce the geek sport competition. Participants race to assemble a Lenovo Gaming PC. The fastest will win an all expenses paid trip to the finals during the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and a donation to their charity of choice.

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Lenovo has signed a new three-year sponsorship deal with the Carolina Hurricanes, the company announced Monday.

As part of the deal, Lenovo and the team will sponsor a new Lenovo Community Champions program that will identify people in the community who have given back to the community through service or support of a nonprofit.

The champions will be recognized during 15 games throughout the season.

Lenovo and the Canes first partnered in 2010. The new deal includes discounted tickets for Lenovo employees and company signage in the PNC Arena during games.

Lenovo is based in China but employs about 2,000 workers at its executive headquarters in Morrisville.

Lenovo is scheduled to make an economic development announcement at its Morrisville headquarters on Tuesday afternoon.

The announcement is related to the company's presence in Guilford County, where it has a fulfillment and distribution center.

A host of politicians will attend the event, including Gov. Bev Perdue and Sen. Richard Burr. 

Lenovo announced in 2007 its plan to build the facility in Guilford County.

Lenovo is based in China but has about 2,000 workers at its executive headquarters in Morrisville.

Lenovo, which has its North American headquarters in Morrisville, is recalling 160,000 of its desktop PCs that were sold between May 2010 and January 2012.

The company has determined that the power supply ThinkCentre M70z and ThinkCentre M90z PCs can overheat, posing a fire hazard.

Lenovo has received reports of two fires that resulted in damage to the PCs worldwide.

The company recommends that owners immediately stop using the affected computers, and unplug the power cord. Only certain ThinkCentre M90z and M70z PCs sold in this timeframe are affected. The company says the affected systems can be identified by machine type and serial number.

For more information about the recall go here.

Apex High School's Academy of Information Technology has earned another prized program thanks to Lenovo and the National Academy Foundation.

As noted in today's article by Caitlin Baker, Apex High is one of five high schools selected to take part in a test program in which students will learn how to design and market mobile apps. The AOIT students at Apex High will work in teams to create a real-world mobile app during the 12-week, after-school course.

Lenovo donated 30 Android-based ThinkPad tablets and several ThinkCentre HD All-in-One desktop computers for the program; the company worked with NAF and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop the curriculum. Not only will it teach students technology skills such as coding and programming, but also how to create a business plan to market their apps.

Apex was chosen in part because of its 10-year relationship with NAF and its proximity to Lenovo's headquarters in Morrisville. In addition, the new curriculum coincides with North Carolina's Science, Technology, Engineering And Mathematics initiative.

Lenovo and NEC officially launched their joint venture in Japan today.

The NEC Lenovo Japan Group, as the venture is called, will be Japan's largest PC provider. The two companies have a combined market share of nearly 25 percent in Japan.

Lenovo, which has a headquarters in Morrisville that employs about 1,625 employees, announced the joint venture earlier this year.

Lenovo as a 51 percent ownership stake in the joint venture.

The two have also reportedly talked about expanding the venture to include servers, to give NEC greater access to the Chinese market.

In a statement issued today, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing, said: "We would like to stress again that we are fully committed to the Japanese market and we are determined to continue to lead the PC industry in Japan and expand this strategic alliance beyond the PC business."

Dell doesn't want to be outdone by rival Lenovo on the advertising front.

Dell plans to start an $80 million ad campaign this month, to help boost slowing sales of its personal computers, Bloomberg News reported.

Chinese PC maker Lenovo, which has a headquarters in Morrisville, started its own ad campaign last month, with an estimated cost of $100 million.

The campaigns even feature similar, dueling taglines.

PC maker Lenovo has teamed up with DoSomething.org to encourage teens to do their part to help make the world a better place -- with the help of two stars from the NBC comedy "Community."

In addition to fostering good deeds, it's a way for Lenovo -- which is going more aggressively after the consumer market -- to get its brand in front of teens. The No. 4 computer maker is based in China but has a headquarters in Morriville.

"Community" actors Alison Brie and Danny Pudi are spokespeople for the 11-day "Scavenger Hunt" that calls on teens to "save the world in 11 days."

Lenovo began selling its line of consumer laptops for the first time at Best Buy stores on Sunday.

The deal is part of a broader push by the Chinese computer maker to sell more products directly to consumers in the United States. Lenovo, which bought IBM's PC division in 2005 and has a world headquarters in Morrisville, sells mostly to corporate customers in this country.

But the company has made it clear it wants to attract more consumers from rivals such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

More than 1,000 Best Buy stores began carrying the Lenovo B560 and IdeaPad Z565 laptop, while 200 stores will carry the Lenovo V560 laptop.