Sony announced that they are selling their whole PC division. The Vaio brand and business will be sold off to Japan Industrial Partners. 250 to 300 employees will be following, but 5,000 others will lose their jobs.
“As a part of the business transfer to JIP, Sony will cease planning, design and development of PC products. Manufacturing and sales will also be discontinued after the Spring 2014 lineup to be launched globally.”
The good news is that any warranties on existing products will still be upheld by Sony, the bad news is obvious. Sony is expecting a net loss of $1.1 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2014. There will be 5000 layoffs within the company, and Sony will be moving their Television business into a separate unit.
The loss of jobs is terrible news. I’ve mentioned before how much of a bummer that is. But at the very least, the gaming division on Sony has seen some lovely growth thanks mostly to the launch of the PS4. Sony has stated they will be focusing more on mobile and tablet development, as well as their Television and PlayStation products.
Getting rid of the Vaio brand by selling it off will hopefully recoup some of their losses for the year. It’s a pretty big move by Sony, but then again their PC brand didn’t enjoy much popularity anyway. It’s better they focus on the stuff that actually made them money. If only so many people weren’t made redundant because of it.
Last Updated: February 7, 2014
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
February 7, 2014 at 09:20
Such sad news on a Friday 🙁
Hammersteyn
February 7, 2014 at 09:40
Yeah, maybe they can work on the PS4 now seeing how it’s a PC basically.
General JJ the ashamed
February 7, 2014 at 09:59
“basically”
Hammersteyn
February 7, 2014 at 10:04
yeah, to bad it doesn’t have Windows to clutter up the harddrive and countless other processes running in the background
General JJ the ashamed
February 7, 2014 at 10:12
Touche.
Hammersteyn
February 7, 2014 at 10:34
LOL, I stepped on some PC gamers toes looking at the downvotes.
Elliot Hicks
February 7, 2014 at 17:33
You”re right actually, I’m a pc gamer & yes, windows is a really bad OS for things such as background processes.
Hammersteyn
February 7, 2014 at 17:46
We ran Steam OS in the office today on a PC. Some potential there 🙂
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 7, 2014 at 09:21
Sad stuff! You can’t spin folks loosing their jobs as a good thing, but I’m surprised that Sony has kept on dragging their ailing division along for so long.
Sad thing is, I actually like the Sony Vaio’s. They’re built to last, which can’t be said for HP, Assus, Acer or all the other jokers out there. Designed obsolescence is cow anus.
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
February 7, 2014 at 09:23
I think the big problem was the price of those Vaio’s. They were pretty expensive. That and sony’s support on them in regions outside of Japan was pretty terrible.
But yeah, very sad day news that so many ppl are being laid off.
RinceThis2014
February 7, 2014 at 09:35
Yeah. It’s never cool. Haven’t seen you in a while? Downtime?:)
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 7, 2014 at 09:40
Hammersteyn
February 7, 2014 at 09:41
LOOOOOOOOOOL
General JJ the ashamed
February 7, 2014 at 10:00
Haha. Excellent
Alien Emperor Trevor
February 7, 2014 at 09:42
Hmmm. Disqus was upgrading & down for maintenance, the Banana was nowhere to be seen… coincidence?
RinceThis2014
February 7, 2014 at 09:43
Three are no coincidences!
Weanerdog
February 7, 2014 at 09:45
What about four are four no coincidences?
RinceThis2014
February 7, 2014 at 10:08
Four yes, but nay to three!
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 7, 2014 at 10:10
I demand FIVE no SIX!!
Alien Emperor Trevor
February 7, 2014 at 09:48
Are you suffering from dyslexia? That must be hell on your dog complex.
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 7, 2014 at 09:50
Five COINCIDENCES or we MARCH TO PARLIAMENT!! 😛
TiMsTeR1033
February 7, 2014 at 09:51
and be as successful as the DA were at doing that to boot!
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 7, 2014 at 09:44
Banana is Disqus? Mmmm.. I feel like Cortana except without the voluptuous boobs!
Alien Emperor Trevor
February 7, 2014 at 09:49
That’s why you need an Xbone. The convenience of pizza ordering will lead to voluptuous boobs in no time!
Admiral Chief in Vegas
February 7, 2014 at 09:37
Hey Jim, good to see you back in action!
Hammersteyn
February 7, 2014 at 09:40
Hopefully their cell phone division will still make money. I really want an Expieria Z. That base of ours is as big as a damn mall. What have you done!
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 7, 2014 at 09:42
Did you see the sand garden? Soon, we’ll even have a working obstacle course and baracks. #warframe
PS: Blueprints for those weapons are ready for collection. I need to mine salvage and circuits this weekend.
Hammersteyn
February 7, 2014 at 09:57
Same here, it really cuts into my Tomb Raider time. Now Outlast is also on the list
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
February 7, 2014 at 10:10
I really want Tomb Raider… 🙁
FoxOneZA
February 7, 2014 at 10:17
But you have your own hair to play with at 60fps Jimmy.
General JJ the ashamed
February 7, 2014 at 10:19
I’m not sure how I feel about a hairy banana. Doesn’t that mean it’s off?
Hammersteyn
February 7, 2014 at 10:35
It really is as good as they say.
Uberutang
February 7, 2014 at 11:11
Notebooks only need to last 3 years, then they have to be replaced to keep up with technology as you cannot upgrade them.
Stephen Snook
February 7, 2014 at 11:13
I’m sorry if It sounded that way. People losing jobs is horrible.
FoxOneZA
February 7, 2014 at 09:57
Next in line are the e-Reader and TV business. Already Sony is moving off their e-Reader clients to Kobo. The Bravia range will likely be next since Sony stopped manufacturing their own TV’s many moons ago. That leaves them solely to concentrate on smartphones and PS.
Spathi
February 7, 2014 at 10:14
And Movies and TV series!!
FoxOneZA
February 7, 2014 at 10:17
The odd thing is that Sony could very well be running their own cloud TV service to rival Hulu with the amount of content they have. The ghost of the PS3 is continuously haunting each and every division at Sony HQ.
Uberutang
February 7, 2014 at 11:10
Sony made PC’s?
CypherGate
February 7, 2014 at 11:15
5000 jobs!? Damn…. I feel it with these people. I got retrenched twice in one year and its one seriously bad thing to go through.