The Meta Group believes that some of Europe’s largest IT concerns, including Fujitsu Ltd’s ICL Plc, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssystemes AG and Compagnie des Machines Bull SA, are going to end up as services companies. It says that although they are managing to cling to their hardware and systems businesses at the moment, market shares are under pressure and they are having little sales success outside of Europe. Indeed these companies derive more than 40% of their sales from their respective home countries. Meta doesn’t recommend buying into a new hardware strategy from any one of them, except as upgrades or for short-term tactical needs.
