Obsessively secretive Fanuc has a love-hate relationship with hedge-fund manager Dan Loeb. The Japanese robot maker no doubt appreciates the billionaire investor's many compliments, including "reminds us of Apple in its product approach." It just as surely abhors the media spotlight, never mind being told what to do by some loud foreigner — or gaijin, as the Japanese say.
Four weeks ago, Loeb's hedge fund, Third Point, started a public campaign demanding changes at the Yamanashi-based company. It's having some effect, in ways Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be wise to encourage and facilitate on the legislative front.
Founded in 1972 by the father of its current president, Yoshiharu Inaba, Fanuc has long been a corporate black box. Outsiders are rarely allowed near its campus on the slopes of Mount Fuji where, 24/7 in windowless factories, legions of yellow robots make more robots. My Bloomberg News colleague Jason Clenfield, who has been inside Fortress Fanuc's walls, reports e-mail is mostly banned for its 5,300 employees. Fear of hackers and computer viruses means business is often done by fax. Japan's 10th biggest company by market value holds no conference calls with analysts and has no investor relations department.
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