Sony Corp announced Feb. 6 that 5,000 jobs will be sacrificed as it sells its PC business (VAIO) and splits the TV division in an attempt to regain profitability.
The company plans to focus on the mobile and smartphone sectors.
The troubled electronics giant also forecasted an unexpected 110 billion yen ($1.1 billion) loss for the fiscal year ending in March, as restructuring costs increase. The company earlier expected a net profit of 30 billion yen.
Restructuring Effects
The job cuts will come from its money-losing PC and TV divisions and will be implemented by March 2015. Sony aims to trim 100 billion yen ($988 million) a year from fixed costs, which will kick in by fiscal year 2015-2016.
The VIAO PC division will be sold to investment fund Japan Industrial Partners, of which Sony will initially hold a five per cent stake. The TV division will be split off into a separate company by July 2014.
The last time Sony’s TV business posted an annual operating profit was for the financial year ending in March 2004.
The comments ensue
The announcement brought about a buzz on Twitter.
More trouble at Sony, as it forecasts $1.1B loss, 5,000 job cuts, tries to sell PC unit, and splits out TV division. http://t.co/fTPSqha4YC
— Pui-Wing Tam (@puiwingtam) February 6, 2014
Sony no longer makes PCs. Nokia no longer makes phones. The world no longer makes sense.
— Vlad Savov (@vladsavov) February 6, 2014
And, naturally, there’s always that one person to make that ‘play-on-words’ joke:
I guess Sony decided that the PC business was not Vaio-able. http://t.co/MBP9xJ4CL6
— mrbrown (@mrbrown) February 6, 2014
