“VA Linux Systems and Sumitomo have created a subsidiary to
help VA establish a toehold in the notoriously hard-to-enter
Japanese market. VA has the controlling interest in the
subsidiary, VA Linux Systems Japan, said Robert Russo, VA’s general
manager of worldwide sales, marketing and services.”
“NTT Communicationware, NEC and Toshiba Engineering also
have agreed to invest in the VA subsidiary, but completion of those
deals awaits regulatory approval from the Japanese and U.S.
governments, Russo said. The partnership with those three
companies, as well as Sumitomo, gives VA access that it would have
had to fight for years to obtain otherwise, Russo said.”
“The deal, a year in the making, will give VA a way to sell
servers to large Japanese companies without the need for VA to hire
a large sales and support staff of its own, Russo said. For
example, VA will sell computers to NTT Communicationware, which in
turn will sell them to the large Japanese telecommunications
company NTT.”