Purchasing the IBM asset will not have any impact on Lenovo's existing cooperation with EMC, said Cao.

"The Lenovo-EMC joint venture will continue to focus on the storage market. Lenovo will continue to play the role of an original equipment manufacturer and reseller of EMC's storage products and solutions in China," he added.

The Chinese company may also look at the overseas server market if the potential acquisition goes well.

IBM has a fairly large base of x86 server customers and a large channel network outside China.

Lenovo has long been in pursuit of IBM's server segment. Last year, the companies failed to agree on the price of the unit, which was valued at about $5 billion.

"Lenovo may offer a bit better price than they proposed half a year ago to seal the deal," said Cao.

The Beijing-based company has been vigorously building a presence outside the PC sector after it overtook Hewlett-Packard Co in 2012 to become the world's largest PC vendor.

The company said it is challenging Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co in the consumer electronics sector.

Lenovo acquired IBM's PC unit in 2005 in a $1.25 billion stock and cash deal. The purchase was a critical step in the company's rise to the top of the global PC market.

Lenovo shares closed at HK$10.46 ($1.35) Tuesday, up 2.75 percent, on talk of the possible deal.