Japanese electronics firm Fujitsu announces split

Japanese electronics giant Fujitsu Limited has announced that it will split into two companies as of February 1, 2016. The company will split into a laptop and desktop business and a mobile phone business.

Fujitsu’s computer arm will be renamed Fujitsu Client Computing Limited and the mobile phone company will continue as Fujitsu Connected Technologies Limited. The move fuels rumors from early December about a possible merger of the PC branches of Toshiba, Vaio and Fujitsu.

Fujitsu itself reports that the split is necessary to be able to compete better and respond more quickly to the market in which more and more players are participating. With two smaller companies, decisions can be made faster by management, according to a message on the Fujitsu site.

Toshiba recently announced that it would stop supplying consumer laptops in Europe to focus only on the American and Japanese markets. Toshiba also stated in the same message that it will split off the PC division as of April 2016. For the time being, there are no concrete reports confirming the merger of the PC divisions of Toshiba, Vaio and Fujitsu.