On Saturday, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that Sony was in talks with Lenovo over a strategic partnership which, it claimed, would have seen the Chinese tech giant take over Sony’s international PC business. The report follows Sony’s recent guidance that its PC division will likely report a loss for the current fiscal year.
However, Sony quickly denied that it was negotiating a joint venture with Lenovo, but its comments left plenty of room for speculation over the future of its Vaio line. In a statement, the company said: “Sony continues to address various options for the PC business, but the press report on a possible PC business alliance between Sony and Lenovo is inaccurate.”
According to Reuters, Sony will nonetheless “revise its product and manufacturing strategy for the Vaio unit”, in response to shifts in the industry which have seen significant declines in traditional PC sales, as buyers increasingly look towards a more mobile future of smartphones and tablets. While the PC market has continued to decline, sales of smartphones continue to grow, with over a billion handsets shipped last year - the first time this milestone has been passed.
Lenovo certainly has plenty to be getting on with for the time being, even without the acquisition of Sony’s PC business, having recently acquired IBM’s low-end server business, as well as purchasing Motorola Mobility from Google this week.
Source: Reuters
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