Speaking at a conference on Thursday, Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) CEO Kazuo Hirai said that he would consider taking on an equity partner to share in the TV division’s growth and risk. But he cautioned investors and reporters that would not be the first step to a sale or shuttering of the troubled TV business.
Sony’s TV division has continued to struggle since before Hirai took up the reins, and investors have called for a sale of the business. The company recently announced that it would spin off the segment into a separate, wholly owned subsidiary called Sony Visual Products. That is expected to happen within the next few months.
Sony recently posted another annual loss, this time $1.2 billion, for the fiscal year that ended in March. And it forecast another for the current year, which would be the sixth annual loss in seven years. The Japanese company has more loss-making units than profitable ones. The only unit that has a clear value to an outside buyer is the studio division. It has been more than a year since raider Daniel Loeb became one of Sony’s shareholders and tried to force a spin-off of entertainment assets. His efforts were blocked by Hirai, who insisted those businesses were central to the company’s future success.
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Hirai promised make Sony a success again, and very quickly, when he replaced Sir Howard Stringer as CEO in 2012. That promised turnaround that has yet to come to fruition. At some point, and perhaps soon, Hirai’s job will be on the line. But the board will have to ask whether there is anyone who can fix a company that is so complex and broken as Sony.
But first Hirai and his team will have to come up with a partner willing to take some equity in Sony Visual Products, given the division’s ongoing struggles.
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