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Siemens Getting Out of the Server Business
There's a shakeup in the mainframe hardware market to report. Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC), previously a 50-50 joint venture between Fujitsu Limited of Japan and Siemens AG of Germany, will now be 100% owned by Fujitsu as Siemens sells its stake in the company, effective April 1, 2009. Fujitsu will pay 450 million euros to Siemens as part of the deal.
FSC's primary markets are in Europe. Among its products are mainframes running the BS2000/OSD operating system. These mainframes trace their ancestry to 1960s RCA Spectra mainframes. Fujitsu also produces two other types of mainframes: Fujitsu-ICL machines running the VME operating system (with primary markets in the U.K.) and domestic Japanese market mainframes running the OSIV/MSP and OSIV/XSP operating systems. In the past Fujitsu also produced Amdahl mainframes which ran IBM mainframe operating systems.
Fujitsu's mainframe lines are incompatible with one another. Fujitsu has become something of a "mainframe collector," buying out ICL and Siemens to take advantage of their revenue streams. The challenge for them, and for their customers, is whether there will be any tangible investment back into the businesses. Fortunately these customers have an option: migrate to System z.
| by Timothy Sipples | November 9, 2008 in Economics Permalink |
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