Much like Godzilla, a new PC titan looks to rise up from a deal that is being brokered between VAIO, Fujitsu and Toshiba by a three-way merger. According to Bloomberg, the new PC giant will look to dominate Japan and close the gap between it and the current top three PC developers: HP, Dell and Lenovo.
According to Hidemi Moue, the CEO of Japan Industrial Partners Inc. (the buyout fund that now controls the former arm of Sony), Vaio expects to strike an agreement to merge with Toshiba Corp.’s and Fujitsu Ltd.’s PC divisions by as early as the end of March. Vaio expects to own the biggest stake in the merged company, which can help the trio of PC makers save on research and development as well as scale production.
Rumors of the consolidation come just as Toshiba confirmed it was not considering withdrawing from making PCs.Toshiba cut 7,800 jobs in December amidst an accounting scandal and a struggling electronics division. At the time, Toshiba revealed it would “consider alliances third party companies” as an option, strongly hinting it was looking to partner with other Japanese PC makers, with the merger being the fruits of that labour.
The proposed merger mirrors the consolidation of Japanese display makers and semiconductor firms, after decades of stagnation and a loss of competitiveness relegated former household names to the industry’s sidelines. The prevalence of smartphones and tablets in particular have squeezed PC makers, with 2015 global shipments at their lowest since the financial crisis.
“The PC market is shrinking, which means there are merits in working together to make the most of research, production volumes and marketing channels. We can do it with minimal cannibalization.”
– Hidemi Moue, CEO of Japan Industrial Partners Inc.
The potential venture would focus on the domestic market and stick to its core business of making PCs.
Source: Bloomberg
