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Siemens seeks to end Fujitsu partnership

Erica Ogg CNET News

Published: 07 Aug 2008 10:23 BST

German conglomerate Siemens AG is looking to end its participation in Fujitsu Siemens Computer, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter".

The joint venture made $10.3bn (£5.3bn) in sales last year, but Siemens chief executive Peter Loscher is reportedly unhappy overall with the performance of FSC, which never found a real foothold in the US in the face of competition with HP and Dell.

"We have said that we want to focus on the three sectors — industry, energy, healthcare — and that we want to concentrate on them," a spokesman for Siemens told Forbes on Wednesday.

Following a bribery scandal last year, Siemens is looking to increase its profitability and has recently shed several assets, and announced plans to lay off four percent of its workforce.

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But Japan-based Fujitsu may not be all that disappointed. In a Tuesday news conference, Fujitsu president Kuniaki Nozoe said mobile phones are going to be a more profitable business than PCs. That could mean it may not be interested in acquiring Siemens's 50 percent stake in the venture, for which it has right of first refusal.

FSC, which was founded in 1999, wasn't able to take advantage collectively of the companies' individual strengths in Europe and Asia, respectively, and subsequently "foundered on the shoals of a capricious and rapidly evolving IT market", said analyst Charles King of Pund-IT in a research note Wednesday.

The Journal quotes a banker who said the nine-year-old joint venture could be valued at between $3.12bn and $4.65bn.

Credit: Report: Siemens wants out of Fujitsu partnership from CNET News