About the same time, Japanese giants began eying the lucrative mainframe market both at home and abroad.

The Japanese giants control half the £500 million a year market.

The Japanese giant bought Columbia for $3.4 billion in 1989.

Even executives from the Japanese giants themselves seemed to acknowledge the point.

It will also give European companies a stronger foundation for competing against American and Japanese corporate giants.

In many ways, then, the new Japanese giant is a symbol of the struggle for the future of both Japan's banks and its financial industry.

But the Japanese giants are slowly moving into the custom-chip arena as well.

Still, Philips will not exactly pose a threat to Japanese giants on their home turf.

But even so, Bach's sensible approach to human resources management strikes a chord, and the Japanese giant might do well to slow down a bit.

Unlike the Japanese industrial giants, Bertelsmann is buying a company in an industry where it already ranks as a major competitor.