It's no secret that times are tough at Sony HQ right now. The PS4 may be selling by the truckload, but it's not such great news elsewhere - Sony is forecasting a 230 billion yen net loss for the year ending March.
That's why we're not exactly keeling over in shock at the news that Sony might be thinking of trimming off two of its biggest areas, phones and TVs. After selling its Vaio laptop business to Japan Industrial Partners last year, the company is reportedly considering further cuts.
The word comes from Reuters, which claims that Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai is weighing up his options. That doesn't mean it's definitely in the pipeline, but the possibility of ditching TVs and mobiles is being entertained.
Born again
"No business is forever," a source said. "every segment now needs to understand that Sony can exit businesses."
Sony spun off its TV business into its own organism early last year, meanwhile the company is struggling to keep pace with smartphone rivals such a Motorola, Samsung and Xiaomi; it might be time for some drastic restructuring.
According to the report, that may take form in a sale or a joint venture for these two divisions. At CES last week, CEO Hirai told a group of reporters: "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."
