The big VAIO, Toshiba and Fujitsu merger is still on
According to CEO of Vaio's parent company, a deal is likely to be signed by the end of March.
We've been reporting on rumors that three of Japan's PC makers, VAIO, Toshiba and Fujitsu are planning to merge their computing divisions for a while. Now, Bloomberg has apparently received confirmation that a deal is on the cards thanks to Hidemi Moue, CEO of Vaio's parent company. If the news organization is to be believed, the agreement to bring together the three businesses will be signed by the end of March. The new firm (which is likely to be called VAIO) will control more than 30 percent of Japan's market, making it bigger than current number one Lenovo.
As we said back in December, the deal makes sense since all are too sickly and weak to remain relevant on their own. In addition, each one has strengths that the others do not, VAIO with the remnants of Sony's branding, Toshiba's foothold in North America and Fujitsu's pull in Europe. Pooling resources will also enable all three to save bundles of cash on manufacturing and jobs where effort is currently duplicated across all three firms. Of course, Bloomberg's analysts are less optimistic about the move, with one source saying that the new outfit will be strong in Japan, but weak elsewhere in the world.
