Fujitsu, Vaio, Toshiba, Abandon PC Merger Plans
It looks like the talks on integrating Vaio and the personal computer businesses of Toshiba and Fujitsu will stall, amid disagreements over issues such as growth strategies and factory consolidation.
Toshiba, Fujitsu and Japan Industrial Partners, which owns about 90% of former Sony unit Vaio, had discussed a potential PC merger since last fall, aiming to improve their global competitiveness. Negotiations centered on creating a joint holding company, it Fujitsu and JIP reportedly decided against continuing the talks, seeing little value in a three-way merger in the current environment.
The combined 2015 market share of all three companies is less than 6.5 percent, which falls just below Apple’s 7.1 percent of worldwide market share.
If the talks fall through, it’s possible the companies would just go their separate ways, a risky proposition as the PC industry continues its downward slide.
Toshiba has been scrambling to restructure unprofitable businesses following an accounting scandal last year. Fujitsu now considers PCs a non-core business, focusing instead on information technology services.
Discussions of a three-way merger began last fall, when Nikkei financial paper reported that the three companies were thinking of combining their notebook businesses, with each receiving a relatively equal stake in equity.