Sony Spins Off Walkman Into New Company
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reginalb
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Am I missing something? That article says that sales of the Walkman are struggling, but they're not killing it. Phones killed the MP3 player a while ago, they're a niche market now any way. That's why Apple ditched the iPod classic, the flagship iPod looks like a phone at this point. (As does the flagship Walkman, and the soon-to-be flagship FiiO)
gerelmx1986
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Theres also new in bloomberg by this, i understand is like sony VAIO fate
DaejeonCitizen
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This is a really old article....
gerelmx1986
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It's still old news, the spinoff was announced early this year:
"Sony plans to make the department responsible for the Walkman brand a separate subsidiary in October."
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/413fd83a-b75b-11e4-981d-00144feab7de.html#axzz3ojvuM5wJ
It's not really comparable to VAIO as that division was simply sold off whilst Sony only retained a minority stake:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2ee4471c-8e34-11e3-b6f1-00144feab7de.html
Sony is spinning off the audio and video division (where the Walkman belongs) into a separate subsidiary which they wholly own.
heatofamatch
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I've seen a ton of people argue in the Japanese press that, instead of letting electronics reside within the main corporation, Sony should adopt a holding-company structure, because they could then finally demand some accountability from that division. Why they could not demand this accountability from electronics as an internal organization, I couldn't tell you, but it's most likely due to deeply rooted factions fighting within Sony. You know, the whole engineers-don't-trust-Kaz-Hirai-cause-he's-a-music--and-PS-guy thing.
By apparently "spinning off" the TV, and audio/video businesses, Sony has apparently taken on this suggestion. I can't be the first person to notice that Sony maintains absolute tight rein over every single thing they do, in a way internal Sony departments 10,15 years ago were not asked of.
You may also notice that that is exactly how Sony Mobile sits in relation to the Sony mothership - a separate company in law, in name, but otherwise is so tightly integrated that it literally functions like an internal department of Sony. It wasn't like this two years ago when SE first became Sony Mobile.
The Vaio spin-off is also not a true spin-off. The new Vaio Corp. sells PCs to Sony for employee use, and if you're a customer, one of the only ways to buy Vaio is via the online Sony store. It's almost like the spin-off is only meant to make Sony's financials look better, but there's absolutely no intention of eventually letting someone else buy it, just a vague threat.
By apparently "spinning off" the TV, and audio/video businesses, Sony has apparently taken on this suggestion. I can't be the first person to notice that Sony maintains absolute tight rein over every single thing they do, in a way internal Sony departments 10,15 years ago were not asked of.
You may also notice that that is exactly how Sony Mobile sits in relation to the Sony mothership - a separate company in law, in name, but otherwise is so tightly integrated that it literally functions like an internal department of Sony. It wasn't like this two years ago when SE first became Sony Mobile.
The Vaio spin-off is also not a true spin-off. The new Vaio Corp. sells PCs to Sony for employee use, and if you're a customer, one of the only ways to buy Vaio is via the online Sony store. It's almost like the spin-off is only meant to make Sony's financials look better, but there's absolutely no intention of eventually letting someone else buy it, just a vague threat.
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