Sony sells PC business 95% stake will end PC product sales

Tencent Science and technology news May 3, Sony announced in Friday, as part of the company's strategic restructuring, the company has been with the acquisition fund Japan Industrial, Inc. has reached an agreement, will be completed this July 1 to sell 95% of the PC business to the latter. Under the agreement between the two sides, Sony will move the PC business and related assets under the Vaio brand to a new company set up by Japan Industrial Partners Inc. VAIO. VAIO registered capital of 1 billion yen, of which Japan Industrial, Inc. will hold 95%, Sony will hold 5%. Sony will end sales of PC products after the launch of new PCs this spring. But even if it is stripped of its PC business, Sony will still provide after-sales service to its customers. Sony will disclose detailed spending on the sale of its PC business in the 2013 fiscal year of May 14 this month. Sony released its initial earnings in the 2013 fiscal year of Wednesday. Sony said the net loss for the 2013 fiscal year (up to March 31, 2014) would be 130 billion yen (about 1.3 billion US dollars), affected by the cost of the PC business and CD-ROM manufacturing, which widened 18% per cent from the net loss of 110 billion yen expected in February this year. Sony's net profit for fiscal year 2012 was 43 billion yen. The widening of net losses is no doubt a setback for Sony's chief executive, Hirai Kazuo Hirai, to revive the new video-game consoles and smartphones. Sony has not been able to launch new best-selling products to the market as market demand for Sony's traditional advantage products, such as televisions, cameras and PCs, has started to slide. The company also announced that it would cut 5000 jobs when Sony posted its earnings forecasts in February this year. Sony signed a memorandum of understanding with the buy-out fund Japan Industrial, Inc., in February this year, agreeing to sell computer operations under the Vaio brand to the latter. Sony is also preparing to split the TV business into an independent division. Sony also said in Wednesday that it would include an additional charge of about 30 billion yen for its exit from the PC business, and that it would spend about 25 billion trillion yen on its overseas CD manufacturing operations. (Mowgli)