After the scandal that cost Japanese electronics giant Toshiba huge losses and its very own executives, the company is reportedly in advanced talks to sell its camera sensor business to Sony in a bid to recover from the recent fallout. Both Sony and Toshiba are keeping mum about the progress of the deal, but according to reports, it is far along enough to expect an official announcement anytime soon.
According to reports, Toshiba handing over its image sensor manufacturing plant in Japan to Sony would amount to USD $165 million. The move would allow the Xperia maker to boost its production capacity and meet the demands for its camera sensors. Toshiba's sensors have been used by devices made by Apple, Samsung, HTC and Xiaomi.
The news first came out from a report in the Nikkei newspaper as the Toshiba's president, Masashi Muromachi, pledged to restructure its businesses that have been performing rather too rarely in a bid to fix the balance sheet that was caused by the scandal that started in 2008.
Reportedly, Toshiba last month had a USD $318 million full-year loss. And after its senior executives were found to have played a big part in inflating the company's profits, Toshiba had revised down its pre-tax profit figures and its net profit figures over a seven-year period.
Toshiba had exited its TV market in the West last January, then followed to plan with making less consumer PCs a couple of months after. The next move to offload its image sensor business is now anticipated to come as early as next week.
While Sony has gained huge praises and traction in the field of photography, the Japanese conglomerate is not doing so hot in the financial market at the moment. If the deal pushes through, it may play a significant part on Sony's fiscal year.
