Siemens AG and Fujitsu Ltd have won approval from the European Union Commission to go ahead with their joint hardware venture – with the condition that Siemens will sell off its Siemens Nixdorf Retail and Banking Systems GmbH subsidiary. The proposed 50:50 joint venture was announced by the two last month (CI No 3,732). It will be named Fujitsu Siemens Computers BV, and plans to start trading this month. The merged company will instantly become the number two European computer vendor, measured by units shipped, and number three in terms of revenue.
The unit, which comes from the Nixdorf side of the business, sells automatic teller machines and cash registers. Siemens had already anticipated the ruling, and has indicated that a deal might be announced within weeks. It isn’t saying who the bidders are. One candidate is ATM manufacturer Diebold Inc, but that company is said to be uninterested in the cash register side of the business. The unit was spun off from the parent company last October, employs 3,000 people and has a sales volume of over $1bn. It has US offices in Austin, Texas. For ATMs, Siemens claims to be the market leader in Germany, number two in Europe and number four worldwide. Fujitsu became a major player in the ATM market through its acquisition of ICL Plc.
Siemens continues with its major restructuring effort. Last week, Tyco International Ltd agreed to acquire Siemens Electromechanical Components GmbH & Co for $1.1bn. Also last week, the company sold off four of its copper and special cable businesses to Leoni AG and to the US-based electronic wire and cable manufacturer Belden Inc. Epcos AG, the passive components and electron tube joint venture with Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, is expected to list on the Frankfurt and New York Stock Exchanges next month, with both companies expected to reduce their stakes to 12.5%. And semiconductor unit Infineon Technologies is also expected to float next year. Siemens says it is on track to spin-off nine units with combined revenues of over $9bn by next March.
