Siemens AG’s fiscal year runs to September 30 so Nixdorf Computer AG is to reduce its current year to nine months to bring itself in line ahead of the merger with Siemens Data & Information Systems: Siemens will end up with betwen 70% and 80% of the new Siemens-Nixdorf Informationssysteme GmbH if the deal clears all the regulatory hurdles; the new firm is expected to be born on October 1; Siemens says its computer group made net profits of equivalent to about $148m on turnover up a modest 6% last fiscal to the equivalent of $3,200m; orders at the end of the year stood at $3,500m; the company says that in the first five months of the current fiscal year, things have picked up with sales up 25% and orders up 28% – no figures, but that profits are likely to be flat for the year.
