NEC

By CIO New Zealand staff | Monday, January 11 2010

EC recorded a consolidated net loss of ¥296.6 billion in fiscal 2008-09.

Global HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Website: www.nec.com
Global leader: Kaoru Yano, executive president
Local leaders: Wataru Takeuchi, MD Australia
Core activity: IT products and services, network systems
Revenue: ¥4.2 trillion (US$6.9 billion) (FY08-09 ended March 31)
Key customers: NZ Post, University of Canterbury’s Innovation Institute
Employees: 23,446 (143,327 including subsidiaries)

In fiscal 2009, according to executive president Kaoru Yano, NEC steadily expanded its business related to next-generation networks and delivered good performance in its IT solutions business, targeting the public sector and the retail and services industries in Japan.

However, from the second half of the fiscal year, the economic downturn hurt the Japanese IT giant’s electronic devices business and other operations.

NEC recorded a consolidated net loss of ¥296.6 billion in fiscal 2008-09.

Consequently, the company announced plans to lay off 20,000 workers globally.

The company is pulling out of the European PC market and Australia’s consumer electronics market. To reduce costs, NEC, Casio Computer and Hitachi, are planning to merge their mobile phone businesses by next April. NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology, too, have announced plans to merge by the end of April 2010, to create the world’s third-largest chip maker in revenue terms. Zafar Anjum