NEC this weekend said that it would quit selling PCs outside of its native Japan. The departure takes effect in July and follows similar plans for Africa, Europe and the Middle East announced last month. NEC is making the withdrawals following a predicted $2.96 billion loss for the past fiscal year and after it was concerned that cutting 20,000 jobs worldwide would not completely address its concerns.

The company continues to be the best-selling PC maker in Japan, shipping 2.5 million PCs to that country alone, but has had little success competing internationally against companies already well established in other areas. Toshiba trails NEC domestically but is much stronger outside of the country, having shipped about 3.7 million PCs worldwide in just the past quarter.