“It’s not that we proceed toward immediate sale or withdrawal,” Hirai told reporters Wednesday. Splitting off businesses is “a way to promote independence at each unit, make clear where responsibility lies, and turn Sony into a highly profitable company as a whole,” he said.

In judging whether to withdraw from businesses, Hirai said Sony would focus on issues such as how much the unit contributes to the group’s earnings and whether it has a technological edge over other firms, as well as market conditions.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/02/26/business/corporate-business/sony-chief-denies-spinoffs-mean-immediate-withdrawal/#.VO8obWgo7e4

Are you happy to hear this, or do you think Sony is setting money to waste?

for Me i think this will open more options to make the mobile section better and more focused and streamlined the move forward with the Mobile being a whole owned Subsidiary, at the very least it would allow a 2nd chance for the mobile section to do better if not Sony can sell off the Mobile subsidiary if such a option was needed to be done , that is  if the board and Kaz see if it really does need to be done after this.

this  also shows after the spin off of the TV section, Sony has already shown there has been in the past quarters is already  3 Straight Quarters of profit so, the Mobile subsidiary could very well follow suit.

This was clear to everyone that paid attention to their IR conference.

Good, good. They're making good products and I doubt any potential buyer would keep the situation as good. Also, I'm afraid I'd have to buy my future phones from a company I don't like for whatever reason (most of them seem greedier than Sony).

Good decision. As kowen says sink or swim.

So the ship will sink?

Very good.

Honestly I have a feeling like Sony's divisions have gotten used to being overbudget and having all the funds in the world at their disposal. I think setting them loose is a great step to regaining each their autonomy and overhead.

This should get the company more focused.

Sony Xperia are high quality waterproof smartphones but they are lacking brand value and they will continue to lose money if they can't get that brand value and make people choose Sony instead of Samsung and Apple.

It is better for customer to buy without brand value when there is indeed value not being assessed, but damaging for the company selling it.

It just so happens that most times when I've been looking for a phone one of the sony phones has been more or less the best option in the price bracket I'm looking at.

I see somewhat of a difference between mobile and TV. With TV Sony had a very strong reputation which they lost to other companies, and now they are regaining ground and focussing on the high end high margin market segment. So they are still trading on that old reputation. With phones sony never got that reputation, so they are in a much more difficult position. It's hard to go after the high end when Apple is super dominant in that segment, with Samsung somehow holding mineshaft there too for no obvious reason than they seemed to get a jump on all other android phone makers. Sony mobile will need to spend a lot of money to cracked that nut, and as a stand alone that might be difficult. In the medium price range the margins are tight and it's a volume game. Again lots of money needed to market and capture a larger share. I don't think Sony operates at the low end, I don't think they make crappy enough phones for that segment.

So while it is good that Sony is sequestering the mobile unit, where is the in for them that will bring them to sustainability? It's going to be a much harder turnaround than TV without a co-investor to provide a cash injection. Unless Sony throws in several hundred million as seed money.