Japanese consumer electronics company spun off its PC division last year, creating a new company called VAIO which has launched some nice-looking machines which are only available in Japan. Sony also created a new subsidiary out of its TV division at the time.
Now Sony is getting ready to shed another portion of its business. The Wall Street Journal and BBC report that Sony is spinning off its audio and video division.
Sony isn’t entirely giving up on audio and video products — the new company will be a wholly owned subsidiary, much like the company’s TV business is now. The idea is that this will let Sony focus on its remaining areas including game consoles, music, movie and image sensors (the company’s camera technology is used in smartphones made by other companies).
At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if the only things Sony makes in a few years are cameras and PlayStations.
While Sony continues to make other products such as smartphones and tablets, the company’s mobile division isn’t very successful these days (although during my trip to Hong Kong, I did see far more Sony handsets in the wild than I typically do while traveling in the US) and Sony officials say they would be focusing on more profitable categories including gaming and TV programming.
Eventually Sony could even spin off or sell its own smartphone division, although there are reportedly no solid plans to do that yet.
via The Verge
Too bad. I have had really good luck with Sony products, the stereo I bought from them in the mid 90’s lasted 12-13 years with heavy use, their headphones lasted me over 15 years and their Walkman cassette players lasted at minimum 6-8 years each (some more) for me — I have one now that the cassette player just died on after well over a decade and since Sony no longer makes them I can hopefully find someone that is able to repair it. Sony products I currently have a four year old MP3 player, a stereo that I bought about two years ago, a six year old camera (the water resistant/rugged variety but I haven’t actually used it underwater, it has survived several good drops — and it fits in a T-shirt pocket) and a bridge camera working on its third year. All Sony products I currently use are in top working order and have not needed any repairs. I have had Sony products since at least the mid 70’s and I don’t remember being unhappy with how any of them functioned. I was thinking about buying a new Sony flat-screen TV, maybe I better do it before they pull a Toshiba (with their flat-screen TVs) and lease their name/reputation to a Chinese company wanting to slap the name onto cheap products. Sony is one brand that my family and I have been able to count on (unlike Samsung with their Android phones that only last one year — although thankfully my sister’s Samsung TV has lasted a few years now, Coby whose CD players break after about three months and Brother whose printers quit dispensing ink after about a year).
Maybe the whole company should be broken apart like a disassembling Voltron. I am not entirely joking. Sony as it is now could be an example of a company that is just too big to manage properly to ensure profitability.
Smart move, they’ve been trimming the fat like crazy since they stupidly sold off Samsung TV back to Samsung. Anything they can do to stay afloat is good for Japan.
The NHK TV news said Sony was also going to spin off
the image sensor business, supposedly so the business
could work on projects with other companies.