On the Fujitsu side, the origins of the company could be traced back to the mid-1980s merger of the PC divisions of Finnish
Nokia and Swedish
Ericsson, when Ericsson PCs were known for their
ergonomics and bright colors. In 1991, Nokia Data was sold to the British
International Computers Limited (ICL). Later ICL was absorbed by
Fujitsu. Ironically, Fujitsu was originally the data division of
Fuji Electric, whose name was derived from its founders; "Fu" from the
Furukawa Electric zaibatsu, and "Ji" from
jiimensu, the Japanese transliteration for Siemens. The Nokia
MikroMikko line of compact desktop computers continued to be produced at the
Kilo and
Lohja factories in
Finland. Components, including
motherboards and
Ethernet network adapters were manufactured locally, until production was moved to
Taiwan. Internationally the MikroMikko line was marketed by Fujitsu as the
ErgoPro. Also on the Fujitsu side, the company fully acquired
Amdahl corporation in 1997 which was a manufacturer of IBM compatible mainframes. The mainframe market was an area where Siemens also had a strong presence, especially in Europe. The mainframe strategy of Siemens was different however as it produced its own line of mainframes that were not IBM compatible. Before the acquisition of Amdahl, Fujitsu also already had its own division that produced IBM compatible mainframes so the Amdahl acquisition was part of a market consolidation effort. The
German half of the company,
Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme, was the result of the merger of
Nixdorf Computer with
Siemens' data and information technology branch. In 2003, the company won the
Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for their use of information technology in an industry-transforming way. It was announced in November 2008 that Fujitsu would buy out Siemens' stake in the joint venture for approximately €450m with effect from April 1, 2009. Fujitsu Siemens was the last major Japanese/European computer manufacturer. The Fujitsu takeover went ahead as planned on April 1, 2009—with the company renamed
Fujitsu Technology Solutions. The FSC website was terminated. ==Products==