Sony To Sell Off Its Smartphone Division?

Sony’s present doesn’t represent the best times in the company’s history and Sony Corp’s CEO, Kazuo Hirai, has to take important, and, at the same time, rather difficult decisions. According to a new report, Sony Mobile could be looking to sell off its assets to interested buyers after dismal showing in the mobile industry from the past two years. 

The company has been primarily focused on high end smartphones thus overlooking the mid-range segment in the process. This decision was taken in order to increase profits during the tough financial times. But sadly for the company, the high end offerings weren't exactly doing all that well in the market either.

The company mentions the $1.7 billion "impairment charge" it incurred in the third quarter of 2014 as a result of the failed smartphone sales expectations. While selling off the mobile unit is one of the options, Sony could also strike a strategic partnership with a reputable OEM to help around with its financial troubles. This means that the company will still be able to keep its brand name and offer Xperia phones in the future.

Maybe part of the problem for Sony's poor showing in the mobile industry is lack of presence in the American market. The company's devices are targeted mainly towards the Asian and European markets, although this has somewhat changed with the recently launched Xperia Z3 flagship, which was launched on America's largest carrier, Verizon.

The company is expected to show off the Xperia Z4 during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in March, so we might not have seen the last of Sony yet. Knowing how Xperia flagships have fared over the past year or so, we are not particularly surprised with this new report. 

Sony sold off the VAIO PC business not too long back in order to cut losses, so it shouldn't come as a shock if the mobile division is on the verge of meeting with the same fate. 

“Electronics in general, along with entertainment and finance, will continue to be an important business. But within that there are some operations that will need to be run with caution – and that might be TV or mobile, for example”, Hirai said. “The mobile and TV businesses both require a drastic overhaul. Without drastic reforms such as joint ventures or alliances, they will both be in the red three years from now”, he added. - Reuters