August 20, 2001 – Tokyo, Japan – Japanese manufacturer Fujitsu is slashing 9% of its global work force as part of its turnaround strategy.

Fujitsu will cut 16,400 jobs from its global work force of 180,000, said Naoyuki Akikusa, president of Fujitsu. About 11,400 of the job cuts will be at its overseas operations.

Fujitsu said about 5,000 jobs in the electronic devices and other sectors will be cut in Asia, outside Japan, and nearly 3,000 telecommunications jobs will be cut in North America.

It was not clear where the remaining 3,400 overseas job cuts would come from.

In Japan, Fujitsu will eliminate 5,000 jobs, half of them by retirement. The other half will come by eliminating the jobs held by workers sent in from affiliated companies. All the cuts will be carried out by March 2002.

“The needs of the market are changing very rapidly,” Akikusa said. “We need to adopt a global perspective.”

Fujitsu will spend 25 billion yen to consolidate its 12 fabs in Japan down to 9, reduce its assembly and test facilities from 7 down to 5, and consolidate all its semiconductor R&D at its new Akiruno center. It also has budgeted another 20 billion yen to slim down its compound semiconductor, SAW devices, and components businesses, consolidate its plasma display panel production, and spin off its LCD business.

Fujitsu will make its plant in Gresham, OR, a 50-50 joint venture with US chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, officials said.

Fujitsu lost $460 million in 1Q01 and forecasts losses for this fiscal year. It has already booked a one-time charge of $2.5 billion for restructuring costs for FY01.