Fujitsu Siemens replaces departing leaders

Fujitsu Siemens has appointed a new president and chief executive after the surprise departure of its joint leaders at the end of last month.

The PC maker has announced that Paul Stodden, former president and chief executive of IT services at Siemens, will take over from former joint presidents Winfried Hoffmann and Robert Hoog.

Hoog was head of Siemens' computer system division and Hoffman was president of Fujitsu Computers Europe when the two companies merged in August 1999. The new company started trading in October 1999.

The resignation of Hoffman and Hoog raised questions over whether the merger of the two companies was progressing smoothly. Fujitsu Siemens has not explained exactly why the two presidents left. A spokeswoman for the company said: "It was time to give the opportunity to someone else."

IDC analyst Andy Brown said the move is probably aimed at bringing the two companies more tightly together. "They are trying to unify two entities and make one unified company. For this they really need to have one strong leader," he said.

Following the merger, Gartner analyst Thomas Reuner predicted rocky times ahead for the companies. In November, he said the combined company had yet to realign its sales force and this was a sign of weakness.

"Although the company won't have the same integration problems we saw with Compaq and Digital, it will be faced with competing management in different countries following the merger and this will result in a certain amount of friction," said Reuner.