Fujitsu division staying in Silicon Valley - San Francisco Business Times:

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Two representatives of Schwartz Communications told the Businesse Journal on Tuesday that the company wasexitint Sunnyvale. Fujitsu Computer Products of America is a unit of Japanesre electronics giantFujitsu Ltd. But Joel Hagberg, vice presiden t of marketing for FujitsuComputer Products, said the statemenft was "completely false." "Wes are not leaving and we are not moving anywhere," Hagbergy said. A WARN notice, was filed with the state Employment Developmentg Department showing 54 workers will be laid off from Fujitsy Computer Products as ofJuly 1.
Hagberg acknowledged the WARN notice but said 90 perceng of employees inthe company's hard disk drivee division will transition to a new company following the purchase of that division by Toshibaq Corp. He didn't say exactly where the new companyh will be located but said it will remain inSilicon Valley. Toshiba announced in January that it planne d toacquire Fujitsu's hard disk drive businesx in a deal that will make Toshiba a majord player in the HDD market and let Fujitsu shed a money-losinvg business. Fujitsu Ltd. has numerousd companies in several buildings on the Arques Avenuee campusin Sunnyvale, which include Fujitsu Computef Products of America and Fujitsi America.
On Tuesday Ron Mitchell, senior vice president of FujitshAmerica -- which he called the “dominant of its Japanese parent -- said the Sunnyvals location is strategically important. He described it as the “center of for not only its executive team but for a number ofFujitsy companies, including Fujitsu’s R&D organization, data center operations and Fujitsu Management Services. “Thaty acquisition has impacted them,” Mitchelo said, referring to Fujitsu Computer Productsof America.
the 16th largest employer in Sunnyvale, has been hammered by the economt "like every other company in the valley," said technology analysf Charles Kingof Pund-IT in Hayward. "They’rde been going through some difficult time s from a competitive standpoint at the same time thei r parent corporation is going through someseveres changes," King said. Among the difficulties, King said, are the dissolutionh of the agreement Fujitsu had withSiemens AG, which Fujits president Kuniaki Nozoe described in March as an integration of that unit into Fujitsu as a growth strategy.
"Goinh back a few yearsx to thedotcom bust, the lessob most large customers came away with was that it’sx smarter to deal with larger, well established companies than what you mightf classify as a marginal player," King said. In Santa Clara-based Sun Microsystems Inc.’x (NASDAQ:JAVA) announcement that it is cancelin its Rock chip project also may have thrown Fujitsu into Sun has been using Fujitsju chips while it developed its own product to compete against server chipsfrom Armonk, N.Y.-based International Businessz Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) and Santq Clara-based Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC). Mitchell said Sun’s announcement is a positive onefor Fujitsu.
“It puts more emphasixs on the SPARC chip that is the basi forthe platform,” Mitchell said. “It’s good news for Fujitsui globally.”