The good news it that the rumors were true: Sony announced on Thursday that it has managed to offload its floundering PC business and the Vaio brand to Japan Industrial Partners, and the deal will close by the end of March. The awful news, however, is that word of the deal comes alongside the announcement that Sony plans to lay off 5,000 workers by March 2015, which marks the end of the company’s fiscal year.
Sony also said on Thursday that it will spin off its TV business into a separate subsidiary by July of this year, and the aforementioned layoffs will span across both the TV division and the company’s PC business. The company will retain a 5% in the PC business following the sale to JIP.
Sony’s mobile arm saw sales increase during the holiday quarter but the company now forecasts a massive full-year loss of about $1.1 billion.
