Microsoft to sell $1B in software to Lenovo

Lenovo has signed a deal with Microsoft to buy Windows, Office and other software suites for its personal computers in a deal worth as much as $1.3 billion.

The agreement emulates one inked in 2006, worth $1.2 billion over one year, to pre-install Microsoft's (Charts, Fortune 500) Windows operating system software on Lenovo's computers, deemed a major step in China's efforts to combat piracy.

Both firms hoped to advance "one of the most important goals of international business: the protection of intellectual property," Lenovo senior vice president Chen Shaopeng, who attended the signing ceremony, said in a statement on Thursday.