Japan-based Fujitsu is looking to sell its mobile phone business, with interest from investment funds including Polaris Capital and CVC Capital Partners, along with Lenovo Group, Huawei and Foxconn,Nikkei Asian Review reported.
The newspaper said Fujitsu would stop developing and making handsets, but wants to keep a minority stake in the business and for the Fujitsu brand to be used. The first round of bidding is expected to start as soon as next month.
Fujitsu’s smartphone sales plummeted over the past few years as competition intensified globally. In its home market, Apple took over as the market leader with the iPhone enjoying about a 40 per cent market share. Fujitsu is the number five player in Japan.
In February 2016 the company spun off its mobile phone operations, which it said was non-core, into a separate company and started the search for a partner.
Fujitsu will join one-time rivals NEC, Panasonic, Toshiba and Mitsubishi, which all stopping making handsets over the past ten years. The departure of Fujitsu would leave just three Japanese mobile phone makers – Sony, Sharp (now part of Foxconn) and Kyocera, Nikkei Asian Review said
