Vaio, Toshiba and Fujitsu close to merger

Toshiba, Fujitsu and Vaio appear to be close to a proposed merger. The merger between the three competing companies should be able to cope with the shrinking PC market. It also becomes Japan’s largest computer manufacturer.

Vaio expects to reach an agreement with the PC divisions of Toshiba and Fujitsu before the end of March. This is reported by Hidemi Moue of Japan Industrial Partners, the fund that now manages Vaio, the former PC arm of Sony. Vaio expects to manage most of the merged business.

The rumor started going around in December. Back then, Vaio dismissed it as “speculation.” If Vaio does indeed get the majority stake in the company, then the rumors are true. Following the news, Toshiba’s shares shot up 8.2 percent. Fujitsu also outperformed after the announcement, closing 2.5 percent higher.

The likely successor of the companies will continue to focus on the domestic market in Japan and also not deviate from making PCs and related items. Exports to other areas with other types of hardware remain a possibility, Moue reports on Bloomberg. This has to be seen in light of Vaio’s recently released Windows 10 smartphone and future plans for a comrade in the robot sphere.

Within Japan, such a merger could certainly make sense, says an analyst. Outside of Japan, the chances of success will remain slim with major competitors like Dell and Lenovo, especially with a shrinking PC market. The combined market in Japan will meet about a third of domestic demand. At the moment, the Lenovo-NEC combination is still number one in the country.

Toshiba has been struggling with losses since the accounting scandal of April last year. Despite that, Toshiba says it is not considering ending PC production and that it does not want to sell its factory in Hangzhou, China. Toshiba’s PC division will be spun off in April. Fujitsu has already split into two companies since February 1.