Executives from Fujitsu and Siemens are discussing how to maximise opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region, following the signing of a global cooperation between the two companies yesterday.
In addition, Fujitsu and Siemens yesterday signed an agreement to form a 50-50 European joint venture.
"Until now, under the strict due diligence rules leading to the signing of the global agreement, we could not directly communicate between Siemens and Fujitsu at the Asia-Pacific level, but now this phase has commenced," said Harald Jung, general manager, information and communication products, Siemens.
"For the time being it's business as usual for our local organisation, and we will announce further details over the coming months, when we have firmed up our options and plans together with our partner," Jung said.
The European joint venture, first announced by Fujitsu and Siemens in June, will begin operations October 1, the companies said.
The new company, a merger of most of the European operations of Fujitsu and Siemens, is called Fujitsu Siemens Computers BV and will be based in the Netherlands.
The company, with sales of $US7.6 billion for fiscal year 2000, would be the second largest IT vendor in Europe's IT market in terms of unit shipments and third in terms of revenue, the companies said.
Its goal is to lead Europe's IT market both in units and revenues. The scope of its business will be a broad range of IT products, including PCs and high-end servers, for both the corporate and consumer markets, the companies said.