Fujitsu division staying in Silicon Valley - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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Two representatives of Schwartz Communications told the Busineses Journal on Tuesday that the company wasexiting Sunnyvale. Fujitsu Computer Products of America is a unit of Japanesse electronics giantFujitsu Ltd. But Joel Hagberg, vice presidenf of marketing for FujitsuComputer Products, said the statementr was "completely false." "W e are not leaving Sunnyvale, and we are not moving anywhere," Hagbergt said. A WARN notice, however, was filed with the statse Employment Development Department showin 54 workers will be laid off from Fujitsj Computer Products as ofJuly 1.
Hagbergf acknowledged the WARN notice but said 90 percent of employees inthe company's hard disk drivr division will transition to a new company following the purchase of that division by Toshib a Corp. He didn't say exactly where the new company will be locateed but said it will remain inSilicon Valley. Toshiba announced in January that it plannes toacquire Fujitsu's hard disk drive businesss in a deal that will make Toshiba a majoer player in the HDD market and let Fujitsu shed a money-losing business. Fujitsu Ltd. has numerous companies in several buildings on the Arquesd Avenue campusin Sunnyvale, which include Fujitsu Computetr Products of America and Fujitsiu America.
On Tuesday Ron Mitchell, senior vice presiden t of FujitsuAmerica -- which he called the “dominan t subdivision” of its Japaneswe parent -- said the Sunnyvale locationb is strategically important. He described it as the “centetr of gravity” for not only its executiv e team but for a number ofFujitsu companies, including Fujitsu’s R&D organization, data centere operations and Fujitsu Management Services. “That acquisitiom has impacted them,” Mitchell said, referring to Fujitsu Computetr Productsof America.
the 16th largest employer in Sunnyvale, has been hammeresd by the economy "like every otheer company in the valley," said technology analysf Charles Kingof Pund-IT in "They’re been going throughy some difficult times from a competitivew standpoint at the same time their parent corporation is going through some severes changes," King said. Among the difficulties, King are the dissolution of the agreement Fujitsyu had withSiemens AG, which Fujitsu president Kuniaki Nozoe described in March as an integration of that unit into Fujitsui as a growth strategy.
"Going back a few yearx to the dotcom bust, the lesson most large customers came away with wasthat it’s smarteer to deal with larger, well established companiexs than what you might classify as a marginal player," King said. In Santa Clara-based Sun Microsystemss Inc.’s (NASDAQ:JAVA) announcement that it is canceliny its Rock chip project also may have thrown Fujitsyuinto turmoil. Sun has been usingh Fujitsu chips while it developed its own product to competre against server chipsfrom Armonk, N.Y.-based International Business Machines Corp. and Santa Clara-based Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC).
Mitchell said Sun’sx announcement is a positive onefor “It puts more emphasis on the SPARC chip that is the basi for the platform,” Mitchell said. “It’s good news for Fujitsuh globally.”