Word: fujitsu
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...hornet's nest was stirred up in Washington last fall when Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics giant, proposed buying 80% of ailing Fairchild Semiconductor. Key Reagan Administration officials had serious worries about the sale of the California-based chip producer, which was to take place for an estimated $225 million. Earlier this month Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige went public with his opposition, hinting at national-security concerns and stressing the need to protect America's enfeebled semiconductor industry. Last week Fujitsu dropped its controversial merger plan even as U.S.-Japanese friction continued to rise over the issue...
...fuss over Fujitsu's marriage proposal was colored by wider U.S.-Japanese trade concerns. Schlumberger, the French oil-services conglomerate that bought Fairchild in 1979, had spent $1.5 billion to prop up its subsidiary (estimated 1986 sales: $500 million). No national-security alarms were sounded over Schlumberger's control of the semiconductor firm, which, among other things, provides components for U.S. supercomputers and ballistic-missile systems...
Every year hundreds of foreign firms offer to buy stakes in U.S. companies, and the Government barely notices. But the proposal by Fujitsu, the Japanese conglomerate, to acquire an 80% interest in Fairchild Semiconductor has begun ringing alarm bells in Washington. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger have asked the White House to consider blocking the purchase. Since Fairchild supplies computer chips to the U.S. military, the Cabinet officials fear that the deal could threaten national security. Baldrige is also concerned that through Fairchild, Fujitsu would gain a distribution system for its supercomputers, powerful machines that...
Perhaps the most surprising sign of Japan's new hard times is the slump in the electronics industry. For the six months that ended Sept. 30, Toshiba's pretax profits plunged 80% from the same period in the previous year. At Fujitsu, Japan's top computermaker, profits fell 79%. Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading business newspaper, last month reported that for the first time since 1975, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and Fuji Electric planned temporary layoffs, shocking workers and managers in the industry. The companies denied the report, but rumors persist. Says Daisaku Kodama, an Osaka-based subcontractor for Matsushita...
General Motors warmed up for last week's deal with several smaller moves into computer fields. In 1982 the company created GMF Robotics in a joint venture with a Japanese firm, Fujitsu Fanuc. Since then, GMF has grabbed a 19% share of the market for industrial robots...