Sony to Exit PC Market & Cut 5,000 Jobs to Compensate Huge Loss
Sony has decided to shut down its PC products as it is expected to slash 5,000 jobs. The highly acclaimed electronics company from Japan plans to reduce the overheads by £600m every year. The decision comes from the company in order to boost its primary business of mobiles, games and imaging.
The company apparently suffered huge losses in the TV sector. It has been a major setback for a company that generally competes neck to neck with its arch-rivals like Samsung and Apple in smartphone business. Sony has also declared that it is likely to suffer £600m loss in the 2013-2014 fiscal year that will end in March. Sony is reportedly expanding mobile computing and smartphone offerings as there has been a 24% sale in the third quarter.
Sony is expected to cut 2,000 jobs in Japan and 3,000 more overseas, which will be executed by March 2015. Sky News reported that the Vaio PC division was rumoured to be sold to Japan Industrial Partners investment fund while Sony is expected to retain 5% share in the fund. Fox News reported that Sony had admitted having a tentative deal for selling the JIP PC business. By August 2014, the television sector is going to be unloaded into an individual unit.
The company is apparently determined to sell its PC division as it believes that it is the best way of combating the drastic changes happening in the PC industry worldwide. The company, however, did not disclose the amount of money involved in the deal. If the deal really takes place, Sony will no longer plan, design or develop PC products even though the customer service will remain to be accessible to its customers.
The company also said that around 250/300 employees in the PC sector are expected to be recruited by the new company while the rest could be transferred somewhere else within the company.