The Japanese electronics giant said in a statement its new corporate structure, which will come into effect on April 3, calls for three new internal companies to be created: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks, and NEC Electron Devices.
The first two companies will be responsible for the Internet solutions business market: NEC Solutions in the government, corporate and consumer markets and NEC Networks in the network operator and carrier markets. NEC Electron Devices, the third of the companies, will take over NEC's semiconductor operations.
The company's Biglobe Internet service provider unit will become a part of the Solutions company. With just under 3 million customers at present, NEC hopes to attract 10 million users to the service by 2002. The same unit will also include the Tokyo-based company's contents businesses, network integration and outsourcing services.
The Networks company will bring together all of the divisions and units responsible for producing equipment for telecommunications carriers including cellular network equipment. NEC hopes this will give it a lead in the mobile and optical networking sectors of the business.
Broad plans for the reorganisation were laid out last September.
The moves are NEC's response to the most tumultuous period in its 100-year history, which saw it report its largest-ever losses -- something which led to the resignation of Hisashi Kaneko, its then-president -- and a government procurement scandal that culminated in the resignation of its chairman Tadahiro Sekimoto.
