I found an article on a well known Polish website stating that it is so, i took the liberty of translating it for you:

Sony intends to sell their production facilities which currently are soley used for the manufacturing of the Cell B.E. , Toshiba is the buyer. Both companies, along with IBM created the Cell
Sony, producer of the PS3, is trying to cut down losses which were brought on by the new console . Manufacturing costs for the PS3 are very high and due to tough competition, especially the Wii, it's impossible to keep a high price tag for the console.

Sony wanting to limit their losses wants to focus on those branches which give the company the biggest income, that is the t.v.'s and digital cameras. The resignation of producing the Cell will allow the losses created by the PS3 come to acceptable levels. Toshiba on the other hand will be able to raise their production capacity and offer their product to more clients.

This transaction, which is to be finalized in late March 2008, has an estimated value of over one billion $. Sony also wants to sell to Toshiba their RSX graphics chip production facilities. Upon hearing of this planned transaction Sony stocks rose by 0.6%, while Toshiba stocks lost 0.2% in value

Wow, if this is true then i'm lost for words. They must have real big financial trouble to sell off their Cell production facilities. Only thing that seems odd to me is the price. One billion somehow doesn't seem as too much , huh?

yea, that's true and it is sensible , because Sony has far less know-how in making chips than Toshiba , so leaving chip manufactioring to them could be a good move to cut costs

I think you may be a bit too generous to Sony on the matter Lafiel. It is indeed an optimal financial move, and a wise one, but I think its safe to assume its one they'd rather not have done if they could have helped it. This isn't Sony exercising pro-active strategizing it's them reacting to severe financial set-backs and losses. In other words, this isn't Sony pruning a tree to encourage growth of healthier branches, its them cutting off their foot to escape a bear trap.

I'm also not exactly sure where the basis for your statement that Sony is any less adept at producing the cell vs Toshiba comes from. Perhaps Toshiba does have more experience in production, but its relevancy to Sony's decision to sell off the plant is pretty thin and a dubious excuse.

In the end, whether this is a good move or not, it was really something Sony was forced to do.

Personally I think Sony is better sticking with what they are good at, larger scale electronics and game devices. Leave chip manufacture to the experts and focus again Sony, focus!

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7597&Itemid=59

I heard something saying that these are the chip production facilities for the larger chip, which will because essentially obselete

Dont panic people, its not like SOny is giving up on CELL. This are manufacturing facilities and Sony sold "only" 60% to Toshiba.

These production facilities are for the 65 nm chip that will be phased out by Q3 of 2008 in favour of a 45 nm facility. Really, Sony is just selling something that they have no use for. Toshiba can find another use for the 65 nm fabs.

I ronically Toshiba is the main proponent of HD-DVD, if I was a suspicious person, which I am, I wouldn't put it past Toshiba to put the Kaibosh on cell Processors for the PS3 in order to trip up blu-ray

Toshiba is sony's rival in the format war, why would they give them the cell?