NEC Looking for Global Partner

According to a story in the Daily Yomiuri, NEC’s next president Kaoru Yano told a recent press conference that “It’s bizarre that there are more than 10 cell phone makers in Japan. We’ll definitely go for a tie-up”, showing his enthusiasm for a rearrangement plan. Following the Nokia-Sanyo announcement and as mentioned in our Predictions for 2006, we are not surprised to hear about his plans for consolidation in the Japanese OEM market.The article also mentioned:

SoftBank Corp.’s acquisition of the Japanese subsidiary of Britain’s Vodafone Group PLC may also cause market turbulence. “Depending on what’s required in terms of price and functionality, we may have to review our strategies [to keep costs down and alter cell phone specifications],” a Toshiba Corp. spokesperson said, summing up the sentiment of domestic companies.