Sony In Talks To Sell PC Business?

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According to a new report, Sony is in talks to sell its PC business to a Japanese investment fund. The company denied earlier rumors of a sale to Lenovo.

Sony is in talks to unload its sluggish personal computer operations to investment fund Japan Industrial Partners, part of a business overhaul designed to shift focus to smartphones, The Nikkei learned Tuesday. Under the plan, the fund will establish a new company to which Sony will sell its entire PC business. The sale price is estimated at 40 billion yen to 50 billion yen ($391 million to $489 million).
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I think Sony's days a numbered. Selling of the PC business for this little chunk of change only to invest in the fiercely competitive smartphone market simply isn't a great plan for a company that's just got no solid revenue streams elsewhere.
 
heatlesssun said:
I think Sony's days a numbered. Selling of the PC business for this little chunk of change only to invest in the fiercely competitive smartphone market simply isn't a great plan for a company that's just got no solid revenue streams elsewhere.
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The market is shrinking and that unit hasn't been profitable for a while. And if investing in smartphones is a bad move, then why is Lenovo investing in them too? Will this move bring them back into profitability? No, but it will get them out of a market where they can't charge a premium because of their name.
 
Ryokurin said:
The market is shrinking and that unit hasn't been profitable for a while. And if investing in smartphones is a bad move, then why is Lenovo investing in them too? Will this move bring them back into profitability? No, but it will get them out of a market where they can't charge a premium because of their name.
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The condition was that's got no solid revenue streams elsewhere. Beyond Apple and Samsung, there's not a whole lot of money being made by handset makers, you just can't say we'll make smartphones and then have the cash roll in anymore than you can with PCs. There's obviously a lot more growth in smartphones but when you have Apple, Samsung and now Microsoft in that game, man you better have some deep pockets, and that's not Sony right now.
 
They have a pc business?

The ps4 is a pc?
 
Hope they don't sell out to Lenovo. It's bad enough they took over Motorola.
 
Not surprising. If SJ were around part of me wonders if he'd buy them.
 
Good, maybe people will finally be able to get parts for thier sony viao laptops (which are notoriously hard to get parts for)
 
sony seemed to make decent machines years ago when I sold pcs retail, but they were always pricey.

I know sony has been profit adverse for practically ever, so I wonder if this is simply to stop the hemorrhaging that is in overdrive due to the next gen console war, or if this is further fallout from windows 8 / tablets bottoming out the PC market.

With all the shifts, I really wonder what the landscape will look like in a few years. Lots of acquisitions, mergers, and bankruptcies, not to mention the changing of the guards at Microsoft, Apple, and other companies that STARTED this technological era.
 
Sony needs to get over the concept that they're a premium brand. That ship sailed long, long ago.
 
Their pcs had great build quality too. Makes me sad to see them seek this for their pc business.
 
The Vaios have great build quality. My wife's current Vaio is still going strong after 7 years. Her previous Vaio lasted 6 years, and was still working, but the battery was dead and we couldn't find a replacement.
 
They're not getting much out of the PC business even in Japan where the competition in ready-made PCs is more hot than you can imagine, so it makes sense to sell it to save time and money. Cut off a bleeding infected limb that doesn't heal and stitch it up.

They sold PCs with 5.25" minidisc players in them.
 
heatlesssun said:
The condition was that's got no solid revenue streams elsewhere. Beyond Apple and Samsung, there's not a whole lot of money being made by handset makers, you just can't say we'll make smartphones and then have the cash roll in anymore than you can with PCs. There's obviously a lot more growth in smartphones but when you have Apple, Samsung and now Microsoft in that game, man you better have some deep pockets, and that's not Sony right now.
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But it's a market they at least have a chance in.

I recently dealt with a woman who's 2007 era PC finally died. While she replaced it, she really only used it as a NAS and even commented that she has no clue if towers were made anymore. They are actually doing OK smartphone wise and is gaining marketshare, while losing money and share in computers, because just like smartphones there's Apple, Lenovo and everyone else.

There is no easy to get into market right now. And it's better to focus on something that still has a small bit of growth over something that's quickly is becoming antiquated.
 
MrLonghair said:
They're not getting much out of the PC business even in Japan where the competition in ready-made PCs is more hot than you can imagine, so it makes sense to sell it to save time and money. Cut off a bleeding infected limb that doesn't heal and stitch it up.

They sold PCs with 5.25" minidisc players in them.
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I agree. There was a previous article posted on the front page about Sony's rating lowered to Junk status. In that thread I mentioned that one of the things Sony should do is strip down their PC business. Slightly different in my response, I still agree with the article to completely cut off it's PC business.

I still say lower the # of SKU's they offer for their electronics division. Offer like 4 SKUs for TV's. 2 SKU's for Blu-Ray drives. Also, try to organize it so that most of their products for any given section can be manufactured in the same factory or factory configuration. But basically consolidate their resources. I think they'll need to let go of some more people as well.
 
That's too bad I love my Vaio Z laptop.

Build quality is great this came with SSD's in Raid 0 when most laptops were still using hard drives.

And when most were using 1366x768 my vaio came with a 1600x900 res.
 
Why would Apple want Sony's PC side? there is not a single thing that they would gain from them.
 
Damn, its official. I have had 3 sony laptops in the last 3 years. Build quality is overall pretty good, better than most of their competitors and they were willing to try out different designs like the Vaio Duo's that I love so much. Thats too bad because other than sony no one will continue to develop the high end convertible/hybrids.
 
I bought a Vaio laptop over a decade ago and the build quality was terrible. While it looked sleek for the time, the plastics on it were thin and cracked easily even though it just sat on my desk. I never bought another Sony computer related item from them afterward.

From some of the posts here it looks like the quality may have changed in the meantime, but I suppose I'll never know now.
 
///AMG said:
Damn, its official. I have had 3 sony laptops in the last 3 years.
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3 laptops in 3 years? Lemme guess, the first 2 broke in some stupid yet easy-to-repair way, but the replacement parts cost more than a new laptop?
 
sir-gold said:
3 laptops in 3 years? Lemme guess, the first 2 broke in some stupid yet easy-to-repair way, but the replacement parts cost more than a new laptop?
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No just upgrades. I bought a 13in ultrabook, then when the convertible hybrids came out I bought the Vaio Duo 11, and a bigger version came out that I wanted the Vaio Duo 13 so I bought em. All of them still work, been really rough with them too.
 
Mine is okay, though I bought it to replace a previous model that died, and another I sold due to cosmetic defects.

So, when it comes down to it, the only laptop that's still on my active list an a rMBP 13. Those don't come with a worthwhile GPU. Maybe when Broadwell comes out.
 
jeremyshaw said:
Mine is okay, though I bought it to replace a previous model that died, and another I sold due to cosmetic defects.

So, when it comes down to it, the only laptop that's still on my active list an a rMBP 13. Those don't come with a worthwhile GPU. Maybe when Broadwell comes out.
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I still have my 2008 MBP. God were they expensive back then. Other than Apple IMHO sony makes so of the best looking quality laptops. The Z line is still one of my favorites. If I have one thing to knock them on its their inconsistent panels on laptops. I hate HP everything except their elitebooks are crap, I hate dell except their business stuff and I dont trust lenovo yet, acer is super hit or miss.
 
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