Sony has revealed plans to spin off its image sensor business into a separate entity that’ll be known as Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation. The existing Sony Semiconductor Corporation and Sony LSI Design businesses, meanwhile, will become subsidiaries of the new company.
Sony may be struggling in many facets of its business but its image sensor division certainly isn’t one of them.
Last year, it was estimated that Sony supplied roughly 40 percent of all new image sensors for smartphones. The company was responsible for putting two image sensors in each new iPhone, generating as much as $20 on the sale of each handset according to analysts.
If you recall, Apple sold a staggering 74.5 million iPhones during last year’s holiday quarter alone. It doesn’t take a mathematician to realize that’s an incredible amount of money coming Sony’s way just from one partner.
In fact, money is the primary reason for spinning off the business. Sony wants to make underperforming divisions more accountable for their performance rather than allowing them to ride the wave of profit coming in from the image sensor operation. The company did the same thing earlier this year with its audio and video business as part of CEO Kazuo Hirai’s continued restructuring plan.
Sony said it expects the standalone business to commence operations on April 1, 2016.
https://www.techspot.com/news/62355-sony-spinning-off-lucrative-image-sensor-business-make.html
