Fujitsu to Sell Flat-Panel Making Unit to Ulvac

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

>Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Fujitsu Ltd., which owns the world's
>fourth-largest plasma display maker, said it's selling its equipment
>business, including tools to make flat panels and semiconductors, to
>Ulvac Inc. on April 1.

As I indicated in a prior post, the COO of Fujtisu General here in the U.S. and
responsible for plasmas produced for the U.S. market under the Fujitsu name,
indicated on the AVS forum that Fujitsu will continue to make its highly
regarded plasmas well into the future for the U.S. market. For those that
missed it, the quote is repeated below and helps clear up the confusion that
some of these articles have created:

"I seem to remember an episode of the "West Wing" where one of the staff of
President B responded to an e-mail that eventually went around and bit him in
the butt. Having said that, as President and COO of Fujitsu General America,
let me reassure all of you once and for all that Fujitsu General Limited, the
company that makes and sells finished equipment plasma display panels has no
intention of exiting the business....period.

In fact, we have plans for bigger and better panels as many of you may know by
now. Unfortunately, there has been a great deal of confusion generated by
Fujitsu Limited's press release regarding their future in the manufacturing of
PDP components. Hindsight tells us that it could have been handled a bit
differently. Nonetheless, we are communicating with all of our dealers and
distributors and helping them understand the entire situation.

Frankly, Fujitsu Limited's reasons for selling a portion of their interest to
Hitachi are a function of their desire to focus on their core competencies.
Fujitsu General Limited's core competencies lie in producing finished equipment
that delivers the highest quality picture to the end user regardless of whose
PDP components we use.

In closing, I'm sorry if this situation has caused any confusion, but let me
repeat....Fujitsu plasma display products will be here today, tomorrow and well
into the future. Thank you very much for your continued support.

I hope I don't relive that West Wing episode, but we thought the situation was
important enough to communicate to the end users as well as our dealers and
distributors.

Thanks again."

TR

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

>I see no contradiction in the news reports of Fujitsu getting out of
>flat panel manufacturing and remaining in the business of making and
>selling finished equipment plasma display panels. Fujitsu clearly
>intends to integrate components manufactured by others into finished
>goods to sell under their own brand.
>
>--
>Matthew

That's true Matt. However there has been quite a bit of confusion as the result
of these articles that make it appear to some that Fujitsu is exiting the
plasma business. As you know, they aren't.

In actuality, the majority of their plasma business here in the U.S. has
always been an assembly process built around other manufacturer's plasma glass
(Panasonic, Samsung etc.) to which Fujitsu adds their proprietary electronics
such as the AVM II processor. It's this additional electronics that make their
plasmas considered the best by many.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Kalman Rubinson wrote:
> On 07 Feb 2005 19:41:26 GMT, vidguy7@aol.com (Vidguy7) wrote:
>
>
>>In actuality, the majority of their plasma business here in the U.S. has
>>always been an assembly process built around other manufacturer's plasma glass
>>(Panasonic, Samsung etc.) to which Fujitsu adds their proprietary electronics
>>such as the AVM II processor. It's this additional electronics that make their
>>plasmas considered the best by many.
>
>
> Furthermore, by being independant from the Fujitsu/Hitachi ALIS
> facility, Fujitsu gets the ability to choose their glass source.
>

On the down side, it makes a possible future decision to exit the market
much cheaper and therefore more easily made.

--
Matthew

I'm a contractor. If you want an opinion, I'll sell you one.
Which one do you want?