NEC plots EMEA PC market exit

Japanese PC vendor planning to withdraw from corporate market two years after consumer exit, reports suggest

NEC's French arm accounts for 13 per cent of its total shipments

NEC is reportedly planning to exit the EMEA corporate PC market, citing intensifying competition from US and Taiwanese rivals.

The Japenese giant offloaded its European consumer wing, Packard Bell, two years ago but according to market reports this morning now also wants out of its EMEA corporate business.

According to Reuters, NEC is set to cease production of corporate PCs in France as early as this summer after HP and Dell’s turf war took its toll on its EMEA profits.

The vendor’s French arm now ships about 400,000 corporate desktop and notebook PCs a year, accounting for about 13 per cent of NEC’s total PC shipments.

NEC last week said it would cut 20,000 jobs worldwide and admitted it is on course to register a 290bn yen (£2.16bn) net loss for its financial year to March.