Fujitsu to float new US company

TOKYO: Fujitsu Ltd., Japan's largest computer maker, will announce plans on

Monday to create a new US-based company focusing on servers and storage devices,

the Financial Times reported from Las Vegas.

The report said Fujitsu's intention is to take on market leaders such as Sun

Microsystems Inc., Compaq Computer Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co in the United

States by supplying open systems compatible with Sun's Solaris product line.

It said the unit would also supply low-end servers based on Intel Corp

devices as well as storage systems.

In late October, Japanese media reports said Fujitsu planned to set up a

computer server sales company in the United States next year as part of a move

to focus more on servers and move away from money-losing mainframes.

Fujitsu has been manufacturing and selling IBM-compatible mainframes through

its wholly owned US subsidiary Amdahl Corp, but decided to withdraw from the

mainframe business as part of efforts to streamline overseas and hardware

operations and focus on systems and services, the Japanese reports said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.