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Sony will sell its struggling PC business to a Japanese investment firm, the company said Thursday, meaning the slick “Vaio” brand could all but disappear from markets outside Japan. Tokyo-based investment fund Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) will operate the Vaio PC brand under a newly established firm and initially sell PCs in Japan only. The moves come as Sony said it now expects a net loss of ¥110 billion ($1.1 billion) for the year to the end of March, a reversal of its October forecast for net profit of ¥30 billion. Vaio, which Sony introduced in 1996, looks set to vanish from most markets, at least for short term, as the new company will initially concentrate on selling consumer and corporate PCs in Japan. Whether or not Sony will continue to produce products under the Vaio brand remains to be seen, Sony said. Although Sony is selling its PC business, it will continue to produce tablet computers, part of its renewed focus on mobile devices including smartphones. Sony did not put a price on the sale, but a report in Japanese business daily Nikkei pegged it at about ¥40 billion to ¥50 billion. Sony will take a 5 percent stake in the new firm, it said. Sony will stop making and selling PCs after its 2014 Spring lineup launch, but about 250 to 300 Sony staff, including some from a subsidiary that produces TV sets, cameras and computers at factories in Japan, will be hired by the new company, which is to be based at the hub of Sony’s current PC business in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture. The Vaio sale was announced along with Sony’s earnings results for the October-December period, in which it posted an operating loss of ¥12.6 billion for the Mobile Products & Communications unit, which is responsible for PCs, sales of which were down significantly. The results were better than the ¥21.3 billion loss a year earlier. source : http://www.pcworld.com/article/2095180/sony-sheds-vaio-pc-business-turns-tv-unit-into-subsidiary.html

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