Siemens AG has put its computer arm Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG under notice to perform or be sold. The company plans to increase its rate of acquisitions and sell-offs as part a drive to put profit back on course for growth. Businesses unlikely to reach a goal of 15% return on capital by the year 2000 will be targeted for disposal in a plan to unload units with business volume of about $2.1bn this year, finance chief Karl-Hermann Baumann told Reuters. Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme is a country mile away from generating that kind of return, and was only marginally profitable last year – indeed its computer business has been profitable for Siemens for only a small handful of years in the past 30. The performance of the units is being checked in comparison to their yield on assigned assets, Siemens AG finance chief KarlHermann Baumann said, without naming specific businesses – There are several units that stand below the formulated profit goals now; Siemens is simultaneously looking for possible acquisitions in hightech growth businesses and in parts of the world that are growing faster than Germany, Baumann said, adding that acquisitions would help drive volume, which he said could rise 50% to $90bn in five years.
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