Sony to sell off smartphone and TV business?
It appears that Sony's smartphone business is one venture that is hurting the tech company financially. With major league players such as Apple and Samsung, coupled with rising Chinese firms like Xiaomi and Huawei, who price their handsets aggressively, Sony is stuck in between a rock, at least where its smartphone industry is concerned.
According to Reuters, Kazuo Hirai, the Japanese multinational company's CEO, stated:
"The strategy starting from the next business year will be about generating profit and investing for growth."
According to the statement, it appears that the company will be focusing more on improving the sales of its next generation console, the PlayStation 4, as well as gaining more partners in order to proliferate business concerning Sony's camera sensors, which exude superior image snapping and video recording prowess.
When asked about the company's TV and mobile phone units, Hirai said he would not "rule out considering an exit strategy," meaning that there is a possibility that Sony will be clearing out its smartphone and TV business or look for a partner that will be willing to bear the corporate responsibility. With this strategy, the company will be looking to increase its operating profit by 2,500 percent in a time span of three years.
However, the profit boosting strategy will not be including smartphone and TV sales, which could ultimately lead to the company laying off a significant amount of employees. Sony has currently not stated on how it is going to proceed with the latest strategy. According to Reuters, the executive has stated that Sony would target return on equity of more than 10 percent by the end of March 2018.
In addition, he is also hoping to project an operating profit value of at least 500 billion yen ($4.2 billion) for the financial period of 2017/18. The company's PlayStation 4 has reached a sales tally of 18.5 million, along with 10.9 million subscribers to the PlayStation Plus service. With the new strategy, the company might finally get to witness a period of growth and profitability.
