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Fuchi Industrial Electronics is a defunct AAA megacorporation that specialized in Computers and Matrix technology. Many of the universal standards of the Matrix and cyberterminal construction were created by Fuchi or Fuchi subsidiaries, and the name was synonymous with Matrix technology until its dissolution in 2060.
Fuchi was well-known to be an alliance between three different and powerful factions, the Nakatomi, the Yamana, and the Villiers families, who walked a thin line between success and self-destruction. It was a merger that was too good to last, and the inter-corporate conflict within Fuchi is still being played out to this day between the remnants of the megacorporation.
History
The beginnings of Fuchi Industrial Electronics were in the merger between Dekita Industries (owned by Nakatomi) and Yamana Electronics (founded by Korin Yamana). Yamana Electronics acted as a white knight on the behalf of Dekita Industries to prevent a hostile takeover by the Pacific Rim Bank in 2011, shortly after the Awakening. When Nakatomi tried to buy back the Dekita stock from Yamana, Yamana refused and suggested an alliance for mutual protection and benefit. Despite the conflict and friction between the two companies and their owners, the alliance proved to be fruitful as both companies played to each others' strengths and weaknesses. In 2017, the company formally merged into Fuchi Industrial Electronics, while spreading out into North America, Hawai'i, Australia, and Hong Kong.
In the late 2020s, Fuchi's focus turned toward cyberterminals. Before the Crash Virus hit, Fuchi developed, with aid from Chobetsu Japanese Intelligence, one of the first privately designed cyberterminals. After the Crash Virus and the demonstration of the power of cyberterminals by Echo Mirage, Fuchi executives were determined to perfect and exploit this cutting edge technology.
Along comes Richard Villiers, a corporate raider who had recently acquired desk-sized cyberterminal technology from Ken Roper and Michael Eld, two of the deckers from Echo Mirage. When Roper and Eld both died under mysterious circumstances in 2034 shortly after the development of the Portal, Villiers became the sole owner of Matrix Systems. All of the associated assets and research behind the Portal disappeared, apparently in the hands of Richard Villiers.
A month after the closure of Matrix Systems, Villiers approached Fuchi Industrial Electronics, then the world's foremost computer research corporation. He offered the Portal technology for one third ownership of Fuchi, and control of all North and South American Fuchi operations. He also offered his considerable corporate assets along with the deal. Korin Yamana was all for the deal, but Kiyoshi Nakatomi vetoed the arrangement, remembering the Dekita buyout and betrayal. Three days after the proposition, Nakatomi was murdered by his limo driver, and Shikei Nakatomi inherited the Nakatomi portion of Fuchi. Villiers repeated his offer, and it was accepted, giving each family, Yamana, Nakatomi, and Villiers, roughly one-third control of Fuchi.
In 2036, Fuchi releases its first cyberterminal, the CDT-1000. It was widely successful, and vaulted Fuchi to dominance of the computer market and toward Megacorporation status. In 2038, Richard Villiers purchased a majority of JRJ International stock and thus purchased a seat in the Corporate Court, making Fuchi a Triple-A Megacorporation.
For twenty years, Fuchi maintained dominance as one of the largest and most powerful megacorporations of the world, through a careful and uneasy balance of power between the rival families. This all changed after Dunkelzahn's Will in 2057, which started a chain of events that would eventually lead to the dissolution of Fuchi. First, Richard Villiers was willed 2 percent of Fuchi's stock, giving him the position of primary shareholder. Second, his aide and confidante, Miles Lanier, was given 4 million shares of Renraku stock, enough to give him a board seat. These events left the Yamana and Nakatomi factions furious, as Renraku seemed to gain more and more cutting edge software and technology in 2058, an apparent act of treason by the Villiers faction. The two Japanese factions worked to rid themselves of Villiers once and for all.
Their actions were stalled, however, by hostile buyouts initiated by Renraku in mid-2059. In an emergency meeting by the Corporate Court, Miles Lanier was forced to resign from the board of Renraku, and he sold his stock at slightly below market value. It was finally clear that the "defection" of Miles Lanier was an elaborate scam for Villiers to gain an advantage over both Renraku and his Fuchi rivals.
Richard Villiers, however, knew that his time with Fuchi was coming to a close, as purges and stock manipulations by the Japanese factions weakened his hold on Fuchi. He quietly started buying out several of his own Fuchi assets through his shell corporation, Cambridge Holdings, and built a home base out of Boston.
In July 2059, Flight 1118, a semi-ballistic flight from Tokyo to Seattle, crashed into the Redmond Barrens. On the plane was the Yamana-backed Corporate Court justice, David Hague. This Corporate Court seat was quickly filled by Wuxing, eliminating any influence the Japanese Fuchi factions had on the Corporate Court.
By October of 2059, Villiers had acquired most of Fuchi Americas into his own personal empire, and encorporated it all into a brand new corporation, Novatech. Villiers simultaneously announced the formation of Novatech and sold off his Fuchi stock on open market. The Yamana and Nakatomi factions dove into a bidding war over the stock that left both factions with just less than the majority needed to gain control. In addition, the remaining Fuchi justice, Lynn Osborne, threw in her lot with Richard Villiers and Novatech, effectively toppling Fuchi from its AAA status.
The remaining Fuchi stock was owned by Richard Villiers' ex-wife, Samantha Villiers, now a vice-president in Novatech. In January 2060, Samantha met with the two Japanese factions, and sold her Fuchi stock to Yamana in exchange for a truce. Shikei Nakatomi saw this as the last straw, and left Fuchi by purchasing 4 million shares of Renraku stock (the same that was owned by Miles Lanier) in April 2060, merging Fuchi Asia with Renraku.
The remaining Fuchi Pan-Europa was merged with Shiawase through a much publicized marriage between the ninety-year-old Korin Yamana and the thirty-year-old Mitsuko Shiawase. Yamana sold Fuchi to Shiawase in exchange for enough Shiawase stock to give him a board seat.
On July 28, 2060, Fuchi Industrial Electronics was officially dissolved.
References
- Blood in the Boardroom pp 22-26
Shadowtalk
Fuchi makes great decks, but I will never run against them again.
(I don't care if you say they are defunct - corporate stooges are like roaches, they'll be thousands of them scattered everywhere anytime one of the megacorps goes down. Fuchi may be dissolved in '61, but don't think that's an end to corporate loyalty.)
--Haze 14:11, 5 Sep 2004 (Eastern Standard Time)
(The fall of Fuchi spawned Art Dankwalther, who was a force to be reckoned with during that whole Winternight/Deus/Second Crash Fiasco. I heard he caught a Thor... or maybe not. Villiers should watch his back, or his ghosts might come back to haunt him.)
--Kid_Vid 11:51, 3 Jul 2006 (Pacific Standard Time)