The long overdue rationalisation of Hitachi Ltd’s mainframe distribution in Europe finally gets under way today when Hitachi Data Systems Inc and Comparex Informationssysteme AG are expected to carve up the continent between them, leading to heavy redundancies on both sides. Comparex is expected to close its UK office, which currently employs 120 people, and Hitachi Data is expected to abandon Germany to Comparex; as many as 230 to 250 Hitachi Data jobs could be lost according to a source close to the agreement. Support of Comparex’s 200 UK customers is likely to pass to Hitachi Data, while Comparex will take over the latter’s German customer base. Across Europe, Comparex is expected to get Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Eastern Europe, Greece, Portugal and South Africa to itself, but cease to distribute Hitachi’s products in Norway. The future of the French and Danish operations is unclear. Hitachi will handle Scandanavia and England, but as well as 100 staff in Germany, the firm is said to have 60 in Austria, 20 in Belgium, 30 in the Netherlands and 20 in Spain – a number close to the predicted redundancy rate. Hitachi is expected to have to support Comparex tape libraries in the UK and two German Hitachi customers will be left with Unix systems that Comparex doesn’t sell, and which were supported by Hitachi staff likely to be made redundant. Since Hitachi supplies most of the kit sold by Comparex, it was always open to it to drive the company out of the market, but both are now bleeding. Neither company would confirm the details ahead of the announcement set for today.
