IBM to mix technology with Canon

TOKYO (AP) - IBM, the US computer giant, and Canon, the Japanese consumer electronics group, have agreed to cooperate in developing small computers.

The two companies will begin selling their first product next year, a Canon spokesman said yesterday. He confirmed a report in the economic daily, Nihon Keizai, that the companies had agreed to link Canon's printer and colour photocopier technology with IBM's computer expertise.

He said next year IBM and Canon would start selling a notebook computer based on IBM's PS/55 model and which included Canon's small 'bubble-jet' printing cartridge.

An IBM spokesman denied any formal decision had been made.

A joint development between IBM and Canon would be the latest in a series of major US-Japanese tie-ups over the past few years.