In order to be a successful company, especially in the hyper competitive and ever changing electronics field, you need two ingredients to be successful. A good marketing campaign for your products and money which helps support future R&D and that marketing campaign. Sony’s electronic business which has been struggling for the past decade has been lacking both but all has begun to change under new CEO, Kaz Hirai. Over the last year, Sony has been busy offloading parts of their business that they no longer find relevant like the handheld tape recorder, laying off nearly 10,000 employees, and selling assets like their US headquarters in NYC for $1.1 billion. Now, you can add the Sony City Osaki building to that list.

Sony has announced that they will be selling the Sony City Osaki building for $1.2 billion (111.1 billion yen) to Nippon Building Fund Inc. a Japanese holding company who will then lease back the building to Sony. Much like their New York City headquarter, the lease is set for 5 years, making sure that no disruption occurs in the daily operations of the company and those who are employed there. According to Sony, the sale is:

 part of an initiative to transform its business portfolio and reorganize its assets. 

Now insert that quote into your corporate jargon translator machine and it should spit out, ‘we are in need of cash ASAP’ which is perfectly fine. Since CES, Sony has impressed journalists and consumers alike with the Xperia Z, Xperia Tablet Z, and PlayStation 4. If Sony is able to take the cash and further fuel their R&D and advertise their upcoming slate of products, this might turn out to be the best move the companies made in a long time.

Discuss:

Do you think this is a sign of deeper troubles at Sony or is selling the Sony City Osaki just a financial maneuver to help the company save some money?

[Via Sony]