Sony Near Deal to Buy Toshiba Sensor Business
October 25 2015 - 9:10PM
Dow Jones News
TOKYO—Sony Corp. is likely to strengthen its image sensor
business by acquiring a competing arm from Toshiba Corp., people
familiar with the matter said Saturday.
Sensors are a core component of digital cameras, including those
in smartphones, and the deal highlights the importance of the
devices to Sony, which has been on the comeback trail after
struggling for years to make money in electronics.
The Sony-Toshiba talks are at an advanced stage and the decision
is likely to be announced soon, people familiar with the matter
said. The deal amount is expected to be several tens of billions of
yen, or several hundred million dollars. Japan's Nikkei newspaper
earlier reported the talks.
Image sensors serve as a new cash cow for Sony because it
supplies them for smartphones such as Apple Inc.'s iPhones and
Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy phones. The business is smaller
for Toshiba, but its technological expertise—backed by its long
history of flash memory chip manufacturing—is a potential threat to
Sony as the industry front-runner.
Sony is heavily investing in camera chips to keep its lead over
rivals such as Samsung and OmniVision Technologies Inc. Sony raised
fresh capital to beef up the component's production capacity
earlier this year, and it also recently purchased a small Belgian
sensor-technology company.
Analysts say market for sensors is likely to grow, in part
because of smartphone demand—some phones may soon come with three
or more cameras—and because other products including cars are
adding sensors to collect data.
Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said this week at a Wall Street
Journal conference that the company is in discussions with car
markers to supply its image sensors.
For Toshiba, the deal will accelerate its effort to shed
loss-making businesses to focus on energy, flash memory and health
care. Toshiba's president and most of its board resigned recently
after an accounting scandal in which the company acknowledged
irregularities that made its low-profit businesses look better.
Sony reports its July-September earnings on Thursday, while
Toshiba plans to do so by the first half of November.
Write to Takashi Mochizuki at takashi.mochizuki@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 25, 2015 20:55 ET (00:55 GMT)
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