Industry News Desk

The 50-50 Fujitsu-Siemens joint venture Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Europe’s biggest PC maker, may come unglued because of thin profit margins, according to Reuters.

The Suedeutsche Zeitung said the same thing.

The alliance is up for a five-year renewal soon and unnamed sources told the news service that Siemens, up to its neck in bribery charges and expected to sacrifice 17,000 jobs to the global slowdown, will probably cancel the contract this fall and that Fujitsu may not have the stomach either to buy Siemens out, given the business climate, or go it alone, since its brand doesn’t pull much weight in Europe.

It could theoretically try to find a new partner.

Such speculation makes one wonder if that means Fujitsu, whose track record in the United States hasn’t been anything to write home about either, would be reluctant to buy Sun, which has been looking anemic enough lately to have spawned reports it’s looking for a new CEO to replace Jonathan Schwartz and may need an exit strategy.

Fujitsu, which makes and sells Sparc machines, has always been Sun’s backstop.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers made $166 million on sales of $10.49 billion its last fiscal year. The company said it had a rough second quarter and will have a tough go making its 5% growth target.