The president of Nixdorf’s Spanish subsidiary, Francisco Roberts, has denied that the parent company’s recent problems – a reduction in employment of 1,600 by various means is looked for worldwide this year – will have any repercussions in Spain. The troubles stem from a lack of cordinated management strategies between Nixdorf and it subsidiaries, along with a failure to predict market trends. For example, the company was late into the MS-DOS personal computer market, and also wasted time developing a high end word processing system without considering the needs of small and middle-sized companies. Nixdorf has defined its new markets as being big accounts in the finance, distribution, administration, and communications sectors. Roberts acknowledges that the Paderborner will not see full financial recovery until 1990, but strongly denied rumours circulating in Spain of a possible alliance between Siemens AG and Nixdorf, saying that collaboration was not the same as an alliance.
