According to a report from BloombergBusiness, Vaio Corp. is looking to make a three way merger with Toshiba Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd.
Vaio, formerly the PC arm of Sony, is likely to have the majority stake in the new venture with Toshiba and Fujitsu. According to the report, it will only be Toshiba"s and Fujitsu"s PC divisions that merge with Vaio.
All three of the the firms have been struggling in the PC market, especially given the rise of smart phones. Toshiba dropped off of the top five PC OEMs list in 2010 to give rise to Asus, who still holds the number five spot.
Of course, the aim is to take on the number one PC manufacturer who resides in China, Lenovo. Lenovo, however, has a stronger foothold in the smart phone market with their own brand of phones as well as being the owner of Motorola.
All three of the merging companies have tried their hand at smart phone manufacturing at one point or another. In fact, they"ve all given Windows Phone/Mobile a try at one point or another.
The most recent example is the Vaio Phone Biz, a solid mid-range contender which will never see the light of day in the United States. The Vaio Phone Biz runs Windows 10 Mobile and supports Continuum, so it is considered a Windows 10 PC.
The three firms expect to come to an agreement by the end of March, according to CEO of Japan Industrial Partners Inc., Hidemi Moue.
Source: BloombergBusiness