Fujitsu Services: MCD sale off

Revived business now worth more than original asking price

Fujitsu Services (FS) will not sell its Multi-vendor Computing Division (MCD), it has announced, finally laying to rest the rumours surrounding the company.

In a massive U-turn, MCD will remain part of FS and will be moved closer to its parent company. As recently as September last year FS said several parties were interested in buying MCD and its distribution arm, tplc.

Duncan Ward, sales and marketing director at MCD, said: "It wasn't until the process of selling the company started more than 10 months ago that FS took the lid off MCD.

"In that 10 months business has picked up considerably, and it is now trading at a reasonable level, so we realised it would be foolish to sell."

However, Simon Welch, marketing manager at rival Sun channel development partner Clarity, said: "What FS says and what it does could be two different things. MCD was up for sale and the reason hasn't changed ... the climate hasn't changed that much."

But Ward said that although offers from venture capitalists and an MBO had been put forward, the value of the business outweighed the original asking price, and a deal could not be reached.

He added that FS planned to offer greater support to MCD, and had changed the management structure, including appointing Mike Stares to head the business following the departure of 20-year veteran Marianne van Ingen.

Steve Brazier, chief executive of analyst Canalys, said FS was taking the business where it wanted to go, not where the banks wanted it to go.

"Business is all about profit and loss," he said. "If FS is putting more in the P than the L column then it is not critical to do what the banks want. It shows that no matter what size a VAR is, it can do OK in this climate."