Services & Software
While Fujitsu's outsourcing business in Japan continued to grow
strongly, lower corporate investment in information systems worldwide
due to Y2K-related concerns put a damper on systems integration (SI)
sales. Moreover, the higher value of the yen diminished the value of
the sales of overseas affiliates on a yen basis. Overall,
consolidated sales of services & software were 1.98 trillion yen
($18.6 billion), down 3% from fiscal 1998.
Information Processing
Expanding Internet usage in Japan helped drive strong consumer sales
of personal computers. However, in the corporate sector, restrained
Japanese corporate spending and lower levels of IT-related investment
worldwide due to Y2K concerns led to a decline in sales of global
servers (mainframes) and sluggish PC sales. The high yen also
adversely affected Fujitsu's overseas sales in this sector. As a
result, total consolidated information processing sales were 1.61
trillion yen ($15.1 billion), a decline of 11% from the previous
fiscal year.
Telecommunications
Taking advantage of strong demand for faster, higher-capacity network
systems to support the expanding use of the Internet and other data
services, Fujitsu dramatically expanded its sales of fiber optic
transmission systems in the US market. This helped to offset lower
sales of switching systems due to increased competition in the China
market. Thanks also to increased sales of large-scale submarine fiber
optic cable systems, overall consolidated telecommunications sales
were 772.5 billion yen ($7.3 billion), an increase of 13% over fiscal
1998.
Electronic Devices
Fujitsu's strategy of reducing its commodity DRAM business and
concentrating resources on high value-added products achieved positive
results in fiscal 1999. Sales growth was especially robust in flash
memory and logic, where demand has been expanding rapidly,
particularly for use in mobile telephones and digital AV equipment.
Other dynamic market segments for Fujitsu were in SAW filters for
mobile telephones and in compound semiconductors for fiber optic
transmission systems. In total, consolidated sales of electronic
devices were 568.2 billion yen ($5.4 billion), up by 12% over the
previous period.
Fujitsu's financial results reflect the performance of 493 consolidated
subsidiaries (518 in FY1998), including ICL PLC, Amdahl Corporation,
Fujitsu America, Inc., Fujitsu Microelectronics, Inc. and Fujitsu
Network Communications, Inc., as well as 25 affiliates (34 in FY1998),
including Fanuc Ltd. and Advantest Corporation using the applied equity
method.
* Note: All yen figures have been converted to U.S. dollars for
convenience only at a rate of $1=106 yen.