No truth in Fujitsu/IBM IT services talks

(By Richard Holway) An RNS announcement issued today from Fujitsu states:

"Tokyo, November 6, 2008 - There was an article today in the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun newspaper stating that Fujitsu Limited is holding discussions with IBM Corp. of the US regarding an alliance on IT services. Fujitsu is having no such talks with IBM."

Well, I must admit I hadn't thought of that coupling! However, there is little doubt that the dawn of the BIG eat BIG IT services era is here. I've been forecasting it for 15 years but it didn't happen until HP swallowed EDS this year. I now have little doubt that we will be reporting news of other Global Top Ten and Twenty IT services being acquired; not just by other IT services players but possibly by companies currently outside the sector (eg in business services, defence). The current economic conditions require economies of scale and any more companies now require global solutions. On top of that customers are looking more to "one-stop-shops" (something that caused the recent Big eat Big merger spree in the Software sector) in IT services too.