Sony has agreed to sell it’s Vaio laptop business after talks with investment fund Japan Industrial Partners. Vaio has again and again been reviewed as a great product; Sony fans will understandably be saddened at Vaio’s departure.
According to Sony, the deal is now official. Sony “has determined that concentrating it’s mobile products lineup on smart phones and tablets and transferring PC business to a new company established by Japan Industrial Partners is the optimal solution,” Sony said.
Established in 1996, Vaio was in the running when Microsoft and Windows 95 ruled the world. Shipping at least 900,000 units a year, in 2003 the number fell to about 600,000 according to IDC estimates. The PC market is shrinking, falling 10 percent in 2013. The lowest decline since 2009. Sony plans to get rid of 5,000 jobs as part of the sale, revising it’s full year forecast loss of 110 billion yen ($1.1 billion) from a profit of 30 billion yen.
Sony isn’t the first company to sell it’s PC business. Japan’s top domestic brand NEC, sold it’s PC business to Lenovo in 2011. China – based Lenovo, who is in competition with Hewlett- Packard, to be number one in the PC business is also thinking about smartphones these days. They planned to purchase Motorola’s Handset business. For jobs at Sony, click here.
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