Fujitsu Ltd has lowered its profit forecast for the year ending March 31 2000 to 60bn yen ($566m) on revenue of 5.5 trillion yen ($51.9bn) from its previous projection of an 80bn yen ($755m) net profit. Last year it made a loss of 13.6bn yen ($128m). It has blamed the reduction on slumping sales of mainframe computers and softening prices for magnetic disk drives.
A company statement said its telecommunications division is experiencing stronger-than-expected growth in network-related equipment, mainly in the US, and Fujitsu’s software services sales are strong. Its semiconductor business, which reported a 65 bn yen ($613m) operating loss last year, will likely turn profitable this year thanks to restructuring efforts and a recovery in demand, the statement said.
However the company’s computer hardware business is heading for a sharp drop
in profit, although PCs are doing well, due to slumping demand for mainframes at home and intensifying competition with IBM Corp, it said.
The company is hoping for a reversal in its mainframe fortunes when it launches
a super-fast new product early next year in both Japan and the US. Its just-unveiled GS8800 computer performs 2,000 MIPS (million instructions per second)
when configured with a maximum 16 central processing units, compared with rival IBM’s equivalent machine which performs 1,600 MIPS when configured with 12 CPUs. Fujitsu’s current mainframe performs a maximum 1,050 MIPS.
