Siemens AG plans to pull out of its computer-making venture with Fujitsu Ltd, a move that may result in the sale or dismantling of Fujitsu Siemens Computers Holding BV, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unidentified sources.
Siemens has informed its Japanese partner, which has the preferential right to buy the German company’s 50 percent stake, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
It’s unclear whether Fujitsu is interested in buying the shares, according to the report. Fujitsu Siemens may be worth US$4.65 billion, the Journal said, citing an unidentified banker.
One possible buyer, the Journal said, was Lenovo Group (聯想) of China, which bought IBM’s personal computer division in 2005.
No decisions have been made on the venture, whose contract is up for renewal next year, said Masahiro Yamane, a Tokyo-based spokesman at Fujitsu. Siemens’s Singapore-based spokesman Chuan Hui Yeang declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News.
Siemens chief executive officer Peter Loescher has been disappointed with Fujitsu Siemens’s performance amid competition with Dell Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co, the Journal reported. Other global personal-computer makers may be interested in investing should Fujitsu forfeit its right to buy the Siemens stake, the Journal said.
Loescher has been reorganizing Europe’s largest engineering company to focus on automation equipment, power networks and medical scanners. Siemens on Aug. 1 agreed to sell its cordless-telephone unit to Arques Industries AG, completing its retreat from telecommunications, on which it was founded 160 years ago.
Fujitsu Siemens, formed in 1999, was the fourth-largest maker of desktop computers in Western Europe during the second quarter, research firm IDC said. It ranked seventh in laptops in the region during the period, IDC said.
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