Hitachi is merging the Hitachi Vantara and Hitachi Consulting businesses under the Hitachi Vantara brand, with effect from January 2020.
Hitachi Vantara supplies VSP storage array, servers and business analytics software based around its 2015 Pentaho acquisition and others.
The combined business will “strengthen front line and delivery capabilities to increase alignment and unlock the synergies between Hitachi Vantara and its vertical business units.” The company will also focus on building Hitachi’s Lumada Internet of Things business.
The new entity is to be led by chairman and CEO Toshiaki Tokunaga, who chairs Hitachi Global Digital Holdings, the holding company that oversees Hitachi Vantara and Hitachi Consulting.
Brian Householder, current Hitachi Vantara CEO, and Hicham Abdessamad, CEO of Hitachi Consulting, will remain at Hitachi in executive leadership positions.
This looks like the Japanese parent corporation returning two American-led subsidiaries to Japanese control. Tokunaga is board chairman for Hitachi Global Digital Holdings and it is unlikely he will remain as the CEO exerting day-to-day control of the new Hitachi Vantara. It is also possible that either Brian Householder or Hicham Abdessamad could be the new CEO. Either would signify continuity for north America and EMEA customers. A Japanese CEO could signal a break from that continuity.
Leadership and organisational structure details will be announced in January 2020.
