富士通樣樣通的股價的啟示

Lex專欄：Lex_Fujitsu and Hitachi – IT contrasts英國《金融時報》 Lex專欄
Two numbers sum up Fujitsu – Y4,660 and Y295. The first is the Japanese electronics conglomerate's share price from 12 years ago. The second is Monday's share price. That is the definition of a company in crisis. Ominously for investors, there was nothing in the group's first-quarter results to suggest that it has reached rock bottom.
富士通(Fujitsu)的遭遇可用兩個數字來概括：4660日元和295日元。第一個是這家日本電子巨擘12年前的股價。第二個是周一的股價。這是一家典型的處於危機之中的公司。對投資者來說不祥的是，該集團的首季業績沒有跡象顯示它已跌至谷底。
Granted, a strong yen and weak overseas demand are hurting most of corporate Japan. Data on Monday showed that the country's industrial production has fallen for the third month in a row, against the forecast of a small uptick. Even so, Fujitsu cannot blame the wider economy solely for its woes. It remains marooned in maturing commodity products s​​uch as mobile phone technology, microchips and PCs. It is hardly any wonder that the company's revenue decline has continued for five consecutive years.
誠然，日元走強和海外需求的疲軟正對大多數日本企業造成傷害。週一的數據顯示，該國的工業產出連續第三個月下降，而非之前預測的小幅上揚。即便如此，富士通也不能將其困境僅僅歸咎於整體經濟。該公司仍深陷日趨成熟的平價化商品領域：移動電話技術、芯片和個人電腦。難怪其收入連續五年下降。
Fujitsu's first-quarter performance was clobbered by weak demand for its PCs in Europe as well as system chips used in televisions and servers. Falling orders for telecom infrastructure from US carriers will not help either. Capital expenditure in Japan is helping demand for its network products ; as Japanese companies globalise, so some IT spending has been buoyed. But that did little to offset the Y25bn of group operating losses during the three months to the end of June.
富士通第一季度業績表現，受到歐洲市場對其個人電腦，以及電視和服務器所用系統芯片疲弱需求的打擊。美國運營商減少訂購電信基礎設施也加劇了困境。日本的資本開支對提高其網絡產品需求有所幫助；隨著日本企業的全球化，某些IT支出得到提振。但這對富士通在截止6月底的三個月裡250億日元的營運虧損幾乎沒有任何抵消作用。
Meanwhile, as Hitachi proves, shifting away from commodity products is worth it in the IT sector. Its operating income over the past three months is up one fifth from a year earlier. It offloaded its hard-disk drive division last year, and its semiconductor unit (Elpida) in 2008. Hitachi continues to restructure its TV division, and plans to cut 5 per cent off its cost base further out. Its operating margins are still barely a quarter of those at General Electric, but at least it is profitable. Fujitsu, however, has a lot of work to do.
與此同時，正如日立(Hitachi)所證明的那樣，在IT行業放棄平價化產品是值得的。該公司過去三個月的營運利潤同比增長五分之一。它於去年剝離了硬盤生產部門，2008年剝離了半導體業務（Elpida公司）。日立正繼續重組其電視業務部門，併計劃進一步削減5%的成本基礎。其營業利潤率仍僅勉強達到通用電氣(GE)的四分之一，但至少它是盈利的。富士通則還有很多工作要做。