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The NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) is beleaguered by criticism after an unexpected outage and IT error caused drastic price fluctuations in blue-chip stocks and billions worth of trades to be called off.

The NYSE blamed the ‘technical’ glitch on a manual error with its disaster recovery (DR) system, according to The Register. 

Let’s Flesh out the Reasons Behind the “Mayhem”

The exchange’s secondary Chicago data centre is supposed to protect US stock markets in the event of an outage or when a natural disaster strikes the venue.

As part of regular maintenance activities, the DR system should be tested daily and shut down manually after the closing bell.

However, on Monday, January 23rd, after the market was closed, an NYSE staffer failed to turn off the disaster recovery system correctly.

The result: the backup system, which is meant to be turned on in the event of a disaster incident only, was left operating overnight. 

It means that the exchange’s trading acted as if Tuesday’s trades were being carried on with the prices of Monday’s trade. 

The consequence: at 9:30 am on Tuesday, as trading started, the NYSE software malfunctioned, and skipped the day’s opening auctions which set prices incorrectly and unfortunately, led to a debacle.

The NYSE, in a statement, said, “The root cause was determined to be a manual error involving the exchange’s disaster recovery configuration at system start of day.“

What Was the Consequence?

The technical error triggered a string of events with catastrophic repercussions.

What NYSE addressed as a “system error” caused shares in over 250 firms to go haywire, with some firms encountering fluctuations in their stock prices by around 25%. 

As reported, a total of 84 stocks saw their valuations drastically plunge or surge until they had reached the limits set to thwart securities from trading at extreme prices.

According to a statement released on Wednesday morning, due to the system disruption, 81 stocks had short-sale restrictions (SSR) implemented “erroneously,” with Snap and Morgan Stanley being badly affected. 

While Morgan’s share price dropped by 13%, Walmart saw an increase of 12% in its share price due to the error.

Soon after NYSE halted the most egregious transactions, it stated: “Approximately 4,341 trades in 251 symbols should be busted (canceled).”

NYSE Fielding Claims

NYSE officials spent hours hunting down the reason behind the turmoil until it was confirmed that no such trading chaos would occur again.

“The issues around our market open on Tuesday are our collective responsibility, and we have moved swiftly and decisively to resolve them as a team,” explained a spokesperson from NYSE to Bloomberg. “A core value of ICE (Intercontinental Exchange, NYSE’s parent company) and the NYSE is our commitment to collaboration.”

NYSE is evaluating the financial losses stemming from this “wreck” and is fielding claims from the affected businesses as per exchange regulations.

Automated DR Systems Can Decrease System Failure Risks

Analysts unanimously agreed that automation could help avoid such system errors entirely.

“Automation eliminates human error,” according to Dennis Hahn, an analyst at Omdia. “If this [DR system] required to be manually shutdown, this is ridiculous and asking for trouble.”

In short, when it comes to disaster planning for data centres, one of the key elements is deploying an automated DR framework. 

Future-focused DR solutions like Protera enable customisable and automated backup scheduling. Plus, it frees users from manually configuring each device while also allowing them to back up their business-critical data in multiple locations. 

The result: significantly minimised human intervention, ensuring business continuity.

With customisable RPO and RTO objectives, users can set their systems for backup—every day, every hour, or even every few minutes—based on their backup policies.

Wrapping Up

Unfortunately, the NYSE backup blunder is not the only high-profile operation disruption occurring in January due to manual errors. The recent massive system crash in NYSE raises concern among US retail investors. The occurrence indicates that NYSE should “come up with something better” and implement automation and best practices for disaster recovery management. 

Fujitsu Ltd., a leading Japanese global information and communication technology company, is reportedly divesting its stake in Fujitsu General Ltd.—the unit that manufactures cooling systems.

The declaration came during its quarterly financial announcement in October 2022. The company revealed that it was planning the sale of its stake in non-core affiliates—Fujitsu General, Shinko Electric Industries Co., and FDK.

Fujitsu owned around 50% and 59% stake in Shinko Electric and FDK respectively—as of the end of September 2022.

Not a Partial Divestment

Fujitsu shared plans to sell its entire 42% stake in Fujitsu General Ltd. as the Japanese IT coalition looks to speed up a business overhaul.

Fujitsu General Ltd. shares are worth an estimated ¥140B ($1.1B).

“We have set certain criteria for the sale and aim to sell 100% of the 42% stake,” stated the CEO Takahito Tokita in a recent interview. “We won’t do it halfway.”

Fujitsu Receives Substantial Bids

In line with its divestiture strategy, the company kicked off the auction process after it had found several long-sought customers, such as Bosch. The initial bids for the procurement were submitted by January 20, as decided. 

Fujitsu General received around ten bids from high-profile strategic investors and private equity firms. However, the company has not yet narrowed down the list of bidders, said ION Analytics. 

Why Is Fujitsu Divesting its Air Conditioning Unit Stack?

The CEO marked the divestiture as a part of the company’s effort to ensure more streamlined operations, reported Bloomberg, a leading financial news website. 

Even though the CEO refused to comment on the negotiations, he said the company was “happy to have interested parties.”

Fujitsu is the sixth-largest technology services provider in the world (based on yearly revenue). In its heyday, this Japanese giant manufactured almost everything—from smartphones and laptops to integrated chips. 

In order to focus more on IT and communication systems, the IT firm is now divesting non-core affiliates and has already sold off much of its consumer product lineup.

For the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2023, the company predicts its operating profit to reach a staggering ~$3.11B (¥400B)—a jump of 83%. 

However, analysts unanimously agreed that the profit will be ~$280B (¥359B). Fujitsu General expects its net sales to rise 37.3% to a total of ~$297.2B (¥390B). It predicts an operating profit of ¥18B for the fiscal year through March this year—an upturn of 113.2% year-on-year. 

In the report, the CEO underscored the COVID-19 outbreak and geopolitical pressures regarding Taiwan as the biggest factors making Fujitsu extremely vulnerable.

According to the report, policymakers worldwide are vying to hold sway over the semiconductor technology used for military purposes. 

According to RF Globalnet, the USA is pressuring Japan to help clip China’s chip industry. In this circumstance, when Fujitsu is hugely dependent on Taiwan’s semiconductors, Tokito said the divestment would help the company prepare for any emergency.

Navigating Carve-out Challenges to Success

Divestiture is a cross-functional process that takes place on a legal, financial, organisational, and technical level. Even though equity carve-out is a standard strategy of business management among consolidated and dynamic enterprises, the permanent split-off of the IT poses challenges to participants. 

Leveraging a high-end IT carve-out consulting service, such as US-based Fission Consulting, can streamline the transaction process and significantly shorten the separation timeline with minimal business disruption.

Wrapping Up

Being at the forefront of hyperconnected business transformation, Fujitsu combines the power of IoT with AI, and network solutions. The aim is to help future-focused companies cope with technological shifts. Regardless of the reasons behind the divestiture, Fujitsu hopes the divestment would help the company optimise business operations while also maintaining the supply chain.