Personal-computer maker Fujitsu-Siemens will partner with US utility-computing firm Egenera Inc in a computer-server deal it expects to bring in $300 million in extra sales over the next two-and-a-half years.
Fujitsu-Siemens, Europe's biggest maker of PCs, said on Wednesday the deal would enable it to offer new products to help firms make better use of their existing servers by sharing idle capacity, cutting their IT costs by up to 50 percent.
The Japanese-German company, a joint venture of Fujitsu and Siemens, already has such products but currently they are only applicable to customers who run SAP software.
Fujitsu-Siemens said the technology it will acquire from Egenera, for which it will have an exclusive European licence, will allow it to offer similar products to firms running a mix of software from various companies.
"It will help us address new areas into which we couldn't venture before," Fujitsu-Siemens' Chief Technology Officer Joseph Reger told Reuters.
"We expect $300 million in new business over the next 30 months," he said, adding that the company would have taken up to two-and-a-half years to build the technology itself had it not entered into such a partnership.
Marlborough, Massachusetts-based Egenera, which pulled a planned initial public offering in April, said the deal would give it access to the European market it would not otherwise have had.
"This is a very important step for Egenera," Chief Executive Bob Dutkowsky told Reuters. "For us to get this level of commitment from a company like Fujitsu-Siemens is a good step in our growth strategy."