Do you think Sony’s rumoured acquisition of Toshiba’s image sensor business is good or bad for consumers?
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A Japan Inc. stalwart, Toshiba makes everything from nuclear power plants to laptop computers and memory chips.
The companies are near a deal and might announce it as early as next week, said one of the sources, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private.
Toshiba is now in a restructuring process, after revelations this year that it overstated earnings by United States dollars 1.3 billion going back to fiscal 2008/09. The company is now looking to offload its manufacturing plant for image sensors, located in the Oita prefecture of southern Japan, and then exit the image sensor industry altogether, according to the sources.
Sony is in advanced talks to acquire Toshiba’s sensor business for about ¥20bn (£108m, €149m, $165m) to help strengthen its dominance in the market of smartphone camera components. President Masashi Muromachi had hinted that the system LSI and discrete semiconductor businesses would be the first to undergo restructuring once a new management team took over in late September. The debate is ongoing as of now. However, Sony official declined to comment on these developments.
Despite its struggling mobile business, Sony is still a serious contender in the image sensor market. None of that may matter in the near future as Toshiba, who has been a victim of its own soap-opera-drama stemming from two huge accounting scandals over the past two years.
According to a report from Reuters, it seems that Sony’s domination in the image sensor business is about to grow.
The move could give Sony a firmer position as global leader in image sensors used in smartphones and other camera-equipped electronics, the Nikkei business daily said.
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