Fujitsu Limited (富士通株式会社 Fujitsū Kabushiki-Kaisha) is a Japanese multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is the world's second-largest IT services provider measured by revenues (after IBM).
Fujitsu chiefly makes computing products, but the company and its subsidiaries also offer a diversity of products and services in the areas of personal computing, telecommunications and advanced microelectronics. It has approximately 172,000 employees and its products and services are available in over 70 countries.
Fujitsu is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX indices.
1935 to 2000
Fujitsu was established on June 20, 1935, under the name Fuji Tsūshinki Seizō (富士通信機製造, Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing), as a spinoff of the Fuji Electric Company, itself a joint venture between the Furukawa Electric Company and the German conglomerate Siemens which had been founded in 1923. Despite its connections to the Furukawa zaibatsu, Fujitsu escaped the Allied occupation of Japan after the Second World War mostly unscathed.
In 1954, Fujitsu manufactured Japan's first computer, the FACOM 100, and in 1961 launched the transistorized FACOM 222. In 1955, Fujitsu founded Kawasaki Frontale as a company football club; Kawasaki Frontale has been a J. League football club since 1999. In 1967, the company's name was officially changed to the contraction Fujitsū (富士通).
In 1971, Fujitsu signed an OEM agreement with the Canadian company Consolidated Computers Limited (CCL) to distribute CCL's data entry product, Key-Edit. Fujitsu joined both ICL who earlier began marketing Key-Edit in the British Commonwealth of countries as well as in both western and eastern Europe; and CCL's direct marketing staff in Canada, USA, London (UK) and Frankfurt. Mers Kutt, inventor of Key-Edit and founder of CCL, was the common thread that led to Fujitsu’s later association with ICL and Gene Amdahl.
In 1986, Fujitsu and The Queen's University of Belfast business incubation unit (QUBIS) established a joint venture called Kainos, a privately held software company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
In 1990, Fujitsu acquired 80% of the UK-based computer company International Computers Limited (ICL) for $1.29 billion (ICL was renamed Fujitsu Services in 2002). In September 1990, Fujitsu announced the launch of a new series of mainframe computers which were at that time the fastest in the world. In July 1991, Fujitsu acquired more than half of the Russian company KME-CS (Kazan Manufacturing Enterprise of Computer Systems).
In 1992, Fujitsu introduced the world's first 21-inch full-color plasma display. It was a hybrid, based upon the plasma display created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NHK STRL, achieving superior brightness.
In 1993, Fujitsu formed a flash memory manufacturing joint venture with AMD, Spansion. As part of the transaction, AMD contributed its flash memory group, Fab 25 in Texas, its R&D facilities and assembly plants in Thailand, Malaysia and China; Fujitsu provided its Flash memory business division and the Malaysian Fujitsu Microelectronics final assembly and test operations.
From February 1989 until mid-1997, Fujitsu built the FM Towns PC variant. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia applications and computer games, but later became more compatible with regular PCs. In 1993, the FM Towns Marty was released, a gaming console compatible with the FM Towns games.
Fujitsu agreed to acquire the 58 percent of Amdahl Corporation (including the Canada-based DMR consulting group) that it did not already own for around $850 million in July 1997.
In June 1999 Fujitsu's historical connection with Siemens was revived, when the two companies agreed to merge their European computer operations into a new 50:50 joint venture called Fujitsu Siemens Computers, which became the world's fifth-largest computer manufacturing company.
2000 to present
Shiodome City Center, Fujitsu's current headquarters, which was completed in 2003.
In April 2002 ICL was rebranded as Fujitsu. On March 2, 2004, Fujitsu Computer Products of America lost a class action lawsuit over hard disk drives with defective chips and firmware. In October 2004, Fujitsu acquired the Australian subsidiary of Atos Origin, a systems implementation company with around 140 employees which specialized in SAP.
In August 2007, Fujitsu signed a £500 million, 10-year deal with Reuters Group under which Reuters outsourced the majority of its internal IT department to Fujitsu. As part of the agreement around 300 Reuters staff and 200 contractors transferred to Fujitsu. In October 2007, Fujitsu announced that it would be establishing an offshore development centre in Noida, India with a capacity to house 1,200 employees, in an investment of US$10 million.
In October 2007, Fujitsu's Australia and New Zealand subsidiary acquired Infinity Solutions Ltd, a New Zealand-based IT hardware, services and consultancy company, for an undisclosed amount.
In January 2009, Fujitsu reached an agreement to sell its HDD business to Toshiba. Transfer of the business was completed on October 1. 2009.
In March 2009, Fujitsu announced that it had decided to convert FDK Corporation, at that time an equity-method affiliate, to a consolidated subsidiary from May 1, 2009 (tentative schedule) by subscribing to a private placement to increase FDK's capital.FDK On April 1, 2009, Fujitsu agreed to acquire Siemens' stake in Fujitsu Siemens Computers for approximately EUR450m. Fujitsu Siemens Computers was subsequently renamed Fujitsu Technology Solutions.
Concerning of Net loss forecast amounted 95 billion yen in the year ending March 2013, in February 2013 Fujitsu announced to cut 5,000 jobs which 3,000 jobs in Japan and the rest overseas from its 170,000 employess. Fujitsu will also merge its Large Scale Integrated chip business with Panasonic Corp.
