Japanese media says Lenovo will acquire Sony PC business in joint ventures

Japanese media NHK today reported that Lenovo is negotiating with Sony to establish a joint venture to take over the Vaio PC business, which is at a loss. Sony had previously said that the company's PC business was sluggish due to the rise of smartphones and tablets, and plans to adjust VAIO products and manufacturing strategies. Sony also expects the company's PC business to continue to lose money by the end of March. Sony to release new quarterly earnings next week. Moody's, the ratings company, said last week that Sony's TV and PC businesses were facing serious challenges, while the core consumer electronics business was also under pressure to reduce its credit rating to junk. By contrast, Lenovo, which has about 80% per cent of revenues coming from the PC business, is aggressively expanding its emerging business. Earlier this week, Lenovo just announced a 2.91 billion dollar takeover of Google's Motorola mobile division. On NHK's report, Sony said in a statement that the company was indeed considering various options for the Vaio PC sector, but NHK's report was inaccurate. Sony said: "We will continue to evaluate the various options in the VAIO sector, but the media reports that Sony will be linked to Lenovo's PC business Alliance is inaccurate."