EQUIPMENT: SIEMENS CONTINUES WITH SHOCK TACTICS.

The new CEO of Siemens, Klaus Kleinfeld, confirmed his tendency for dismissive methods on December 21 when he announced the sale of problematic information services division SBS. Fujitsu-Siemens, a joint 50-50 venture between the Munich based group and Japanese Fujitsu, is to takeover SBS's product services business on April 1, 2006. The business has a turnover of euro 1.3 billion and employs some 5,000 people. SBS as a whole registered a turnover of euro 5.373 billion for the year ending September 2005.

One of Klaus Kleinfeld's first moves after taking over the reins at Siemens at the end of January 2005 was to get rid of the mobile telephone business. Although the business was losing the firm euro 1.5 million per day, the sale, concluded in September, inflicted even bigger losses: Siemens was obliged to pay euro 250 million to the Taiwanese buyer BenQ. At the beginning of October Mr Kleinfeld also dismantled the logistics and handling division which was running at a loss. The SME handling division, with 5,000 employees, was made into a subsidiary and the rest was spread amongst other divisions.

These measures were coupled with a staff reduction. SBS, which employs about 39,000 staff (15,000 in Germany)...