Fujitsu confirms Lenovo PC talks

Reports of a deal with Lenovo comes as Gartner issues another gloomy prognosis over trajectory of traditional PC sales

Fujitsu has confirmed it is considering selling its PC business to Lenovo, just as Gartner released yet more gloomy data on the market.

The Japanese vendor issued a statement this morning confirming it is "considering various possibilities" for its PC business, "including what is being reported".

Earlier, Fujitsu's share price had spiked seven per cent on Japanese reports referencing a possible deal with Lenovo.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the duo aim to reach a deal this month, with one proposal involving Fujitsu transferring its PC assets to a Lenovo-led joint venture.

Fujitsu split off its PC business in February. At the time, a three-way merger with Toshiba's PC business and Sony's former brand Vaio was touted, but these talks apparently broke down.

The latest development comes as market watcher Gartner issued another gloomy prognosis for the traditional PC market.

Shipments of traditional desk-based and notebook PCs are forecast to slump another 11 per cent in 2016 to 216 million units, before contracting another five in 2017 and three per cent in 2018.

According to rival analyst IDC, Fujitsu was the seventh-largest PC vendor in EMEA by shipments in Q2.

Lenovo, which is battling it out for the global PC top spot with HP, is no stranger to big acquisitions in the space, having acquired IBM's ThinkPad business in 2005 and the PC business unit of NEC in 2011.

Gartner's latest figures (see table below) forecast a decline in the overall devices market this year, with premium ultramobiles - such as Microsoft's Windows 10 Intel x86 products and Apple's MacBook Air - one of the few bright spots.

Table 1. Worldwide Devices Shipments by Device Type, 2015-2018 (Millions of Units)

Device Type 2015 2016 2017 2018

Traditional PCs (Desk-Based and Notebook) 244 216 205 199

Ultramobiles (Premium) 44 49 61 75

PC Market 288 265 266 274

Ultramobiles (Basic and Utility) 196 177 173 173

Computing Devices Market 484 442 439 447

Mobile Phones 1,917 1,887 1,910 1,933

Total Devices Market 2,401 2,329 2,349 2,380