I did look for similar posts, however I didn't catch this.   This being one of the few threads I haven't been keeping track of and it not mentioning a major division closure in the title it got overlooked. 

 That actually makes me believe it is true, he is not denying it he just says "we have nothing to announce at this time"

If they were denying it they would say "its not true we have no plans to do xyz".

The Times are actually one of the more credible media sources as they are more of a business style organisation. If they think this is going to happen it is more credible then any online rumour publication or of course sources such as The Sun.

The reality is this is not just a Sony thing it is an every company/business thing. Any company that is losing money has to look at the company and stop the flow of loses. If you keep on losing money your inevitably end up bankrupt.

I dont think it will be the Playstation brand that will be shut down but i do think were see a lot of games canned and exclusive deals with 3rd parties scrapped. It also adds more credibility to the fact Sony WONT be price cutting for the PS3 especially if they are still making $50 loses on each machine.

What lol? People have and will lose their jobs. Nothing funny about that.

You doubt what exactly? That Sony's in trouble? And that they have to do something? If the Times writes it it's very likely to happen and Sony itself has already given profit warnings to their shareholders. Sony is in a lot of trouble and closing one or two divisions is probably inevitable.

The only major divisions I can see them closing are Game, Financial Services and Sony Ericsson.

Sony Ericsson doesn't seem very likely to me, since they had a great profit in the last fiscal year ($2 billion) and just a very small loss in the last quarter ($18 million).

Financial Services is quite a good candidate for elimination IMO, with the financial crisis and the stock market tanking it's posting heavy losses. It seems to me like asking for trouble to have a division like that in a company which by itself is already vulnerable to recessions.

The Game division was the only one posting losses in the last fiscal year, and rather sizable ones at more than $1 billion. They also lost money in the last quarter ($400 million). However, they can drastically improve the situation (at least in the short term) by not applying PS3 price cuts. However I think they'll still be posting losses during most of the next fiscal year due to declining PS2 software sales and MS/Nintendo competition stealing PS3 sales.

All in all, if this article is correct, my bet would be the end of the Financial services division (good riddance) and significant cuts in ALL other divisions. All divisions are on the line so they HAVE to be careful not to piss off shareholders. This likely means no PS3 price cuts during most or all of 2009.

awwwwww , poor sony............ muwahahahahahahahaha

The problem with the Financial Division is that it's a very bad time to sell it. That's arguably the case for every division, but banks have collapsed/suffered all over the place.

Besides a very sizeable part of Sony's assets IS the FD. Selling those will highly impact the Market Cap even further (it's already down to the 28th Japanese company in 2008).

Sony already closed robotics. Camera's is a very healthy part of Sony. Basically it will come down to:

Sony Ericsson (almost profitable, but not really core business)
Computer Entertainment (Most underperforming for the last 3 years)
TV's (Also underperforming, but Sony's core business for ages)

Music and Film provide a steady and secure income and doesn't need high ivestments perse. They can keep the backlog and re-invest later.

I think they're making a nice profit on TVs lately, although with the exchange rates and low demand as they are this will probably not be true anymore...

Sony Ericsson is really a mixed bag... huge profits in the past, but for some reason not right now, maybe due to heavy competition. Hard to say what they think about this one since I don't know much about the cellphone market.

You're right with your concerns about selling off Financial Services right now, perhaps it's not a good time. Tough choices for Sony's executives right now.

I think if anything ericsson will get the axe.
everything else revolves around home theater, which is their essential market.

also they might sell cd factories, and just buy music shipments until music goes digital. The same goes for their dvd factories. Needless to say, this is all probably restricted to Japan as ericsson, dvds and cds do very well in america.

I am guessing it will be near impossible to sell off its Financial Division in todays horrid economy.  They will probably get next to nothing out of it.  If I were to make a bet, I would have to go with Sony Ericsson to bear the brunt of it.  Even this will not be enough and I would imagine Sony will take  major cuts in every other remaining division.  

The Japanese culture believe that once you have a job you get to keep it for life.  And this is one of the reasons Sony is in such a bad spot.  They refuse to let people go unless it is an absolute necessity.  This really does give employees a since of loyalty but it can also be very ruff in economic downturns.

what about those walkman's

what division is that

I mean the standalone walkmans