Sony decides to hold onto battery unit

Sony is a company that has several different units under the corporate umbrella. One of those business units is the company's battery unit. Sony had been preparing to sell of its battery unit, but has now decided to hold onto it.Sony is hoping that it can turn the ailing battery unit around thanks to a weaker yen. Along with a weaker yen, Sony is also seeing an uptick in the demand for smartphone batteries. The weaker yen helps Sony to boost profits from its overseas sales. A strong yen hurt Sony and other Japanese firms as it pushed the profits from overseas units down.

Sony has been planning to sell the battery unit for the past two years. The battery arm has struggled in recent years to compete with battery makers from South Korea with lower prices. A deal to sell the battery division to a joint venture between Nissan and NEC fell apart earlier this year.

Sources claiming to be familiar with Sony's plans now say that Sony will hold onto the battery division and turn it into a core business. The failure of any buyers to step up and purchase the battery arm from Sony could have a lot to do with its plans to hold onto the division and develop it further.

SOURCE: Reuters