technology services

Industrial conglomerate Siemens AG is poised to sell its 50-percent stake in the joint venture Fujitsu Siemens Computers to Japan's Fujitsu Group, two people familiar with the deal told The Associated Press on Monday.

Siemens has been contemplating a sale of its half in the joint venture at least since August. Chief Executive Peter Loescher said then that the company was in talks with Fujitsu about the fate of the unit, which makes personal computers and laptops and posted sales of 6.6 billion euros but a pretax profit of just 105 million euros last year.

Even after IBM Corp. surprised Wall Street with a healthy profit in the third quarter and a reaffirmation of its earnings outlook for the rest of the year, the broader technology sector dived again Thursday. There's just not enough of what lifted IBM to go around.

Tech stocks were pummeled Thursday, and IBM ended the day down as well. Analysts expressed fears that Armonk, New York-based IBM could see trouble in the fourth quarter and into 2009 if the lending and spending climate worsens as expected.

Hewlett-Packard Co. cashed in on rising international demand again in its second quarter, but that performance may not be enough to ease worries about the company's exposure to the ailing U.S. economy as it prepares to digest the second largest acquisition in its 69-year history.

The results released Tuesday came as no surprise because HP provided a snapshot of its latest quarterly numbers and outlook last week when the Palo Alto-based company jolted investors with the news about its plans to buy technology services provider Electronic Data Systems Corp. for $13.2 billion (EU8.4 billion).