It’s happened in the US and Europe, and now local area network wars are hotting up in Japan with Fujitsu Ltd introducing a special hardware, basic software and local network support bundle for its dealers, to counter the activities of NEC and its top dealer Otsuka Shokai, which with Mitsubishi Corp last month formed a joint venture called NetWorld to expand its sales of local network software; Fujitsu will be selling the Japanese version of Novell’s NetWare and LAN Manager from Microsoft both also offered by NEC; other contenders include Japan Soft Bank Co, a key investor in Novell Japan with 32.5% and in its dealer Businessland Japan, 26%, selling Novell products only and the 3Com Soliton joint venture between 3Com Corp and local networking and communications software firm Soliton Inc with 3+Open and LAN Manager.
