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Siemens wants out of PC venture with Fujitsu

FRANKFURT - The German engineering group Siemens wants to sell its half of a computer joint venture with Fujitsu of Japan, a press report said on Monday, quoting people familiar with the matter.

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Siemens has told Fujitsu it wants to pull out of their nine-year-old venture known as FSC, and Fujitsu has an option to buy the German company's share, though it was not sure the Japanese firm would do so, the Wall Street Journal Europe reported.

It quoted Fujitsu president Kuniaki Nozoe as saying on Tuesday that mobile phones were a more promising way of increasing foreign sales than personal computers.

One possible buyer, the report said, was Lenovo Group of China, which bought IBM's personal computer division in 2005.

According to the newspaper, based on Lenovo's present worth, the Fujitsu Siemens venture might be worth around four billion dollars (2.6 billion euros).

Spokesmen for Siemens declined to comment, the report said, while Fujitsu and FSC could not be reached for comment.

The venture had 6.6 billion euros in sales in its latest fiscal year, but faces stiff competition from the US companies Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

FSC, which also makes main-frame computers and servers, posted a pre-tax profit of 105 million euros last year, and has forecast that figure could double this year.