Fujitsu president Tanaka awarded French medal

January 26, 2018

Tokyo- Japan's Fujitsu Ltd. said Friday that its president, Tatsuya Tanaka, has been awarded the Legion d'honneur chevalier, one of France's highest honors.

Tanaka, 61, received the medal in recognition of the company's operations in France for nearly 20 years and its active investment in the field of information technology.

An award ceremony was held at Elysee Palace in Paris on Thursday.

Noting that France has excellent human resources in the field of artificial intelligence, Tanaka said Fujitsu is promoting various efforts in the country as a base for the development of technology and services.

Fujitsu aims to make further contribution to promoting the relationship between Japan and France, he added. Meanwhile, Fujitsu Ltd. is considering selling its mobile phone business to Japanese investment fund Polaris Capital Group Co., informed sources said Friday.

Fujitsu will sell a majority stake in Fujitsu Connected Technologies Ltd., a wholly-owned mobile phone manufacturing subsidiary, for tens of billions of yen, the sources said.

The share sale deal will be concluded this month at the earliest.

The current mobile phone production facilities and Fujitsu's brand of Arrows are expected to be maintained, the sources said.

Fujitsu Connected Technologies makes smartphones and other products of the Arrows brand at a plant in Kato, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, of another Fujitsu group company.

The Fujitsu group's sales of smartphones and other mobile phones peaked in fiscal 2011, at some 8 million units.

As the sales are estimated to drop to 3.1 million units in fiscal 2017, Fujitsu has been looking for a buyer of its mobile phone business, the sources said.

The parent company plans to make the mobile phone unit an unconsolidated company in order to refocus its resources on information technology operations that are expected to grow, the sources said.

Fujitsu said in a statement that it is holding negotiations with Polaris Capital Group, though no official decision has been made on the reported sale plan.

In November last year, Fujitsu agreed with China's Lenovo Group Ltd. to integrate their personal computer operations. Jiji Press