Sony Corp will sell 90 percent of its biggest North American television-manufacturing site as it reorganizes its unprofitable TV business by outsourcing more production.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) will buy the stake in a liquid-crystal-display TV unit based in Tijuana, Mexico, and the unit’s manufacturing assets, Tokyo-based Sony said yesterday.
Hon Hai, which yesterday reported its first profit growth in more than a year, will continue production of Bravia TVs and retain all 3,300 of the factory’s workers. Sony will keep the balance of 10 percent of the unit.
The sale signals that Sony — which is cutting 16,000 jobs and has shut eight factories to revive its profitability as it heads into its first consecutive annual losses since its listing in 1958 — may eventually stop making TVs, said Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citigroup Inc in Tokyo.
“The Mexico site is Sony’s main TV production base, and selling that suggests the company may be selling other smaller sites,” Ezawa said by phone.
Sony gained 0.2 percent to close at ¥2,520 (US$27) in Tokyo trading, while the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.4 percent.
The company’s Consumer Products and Devices Group, which makes TVs, cameras and semiconductors, posted a ¥2 billion loss in the quarter ended June 30, compared with a profit of ¥36.1 billion a year earlier as sales slumped 27 percent.
The sale is the first of a TV factory under Sony’s plan to reduce assets and outsource more of its production, Mami Imada, a spokeswoman for Sony in Tokyo, said by phone. She declined to disclose financial terms of the agreement.
Hon Hai, the world’s largest contract maker of electronics, gained 6.8 percent to close at NT$118.5 on the Taipei Stock Exchange, the highest level since Aug. 29 last year. The company on Monday posted its first profit increase in five quarters, beating analysts’ estimates. Second-quarter net income rose 27 percent to NT$15.1 billion (US$460 million) from a year earlier.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
Industrial production expanded 22.31 percent annually last month to 107.51, as increases in demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove demand for locally-made chips and components. The manufacturing production index climbed 23.68 percent year-on-year to 108.37, marking the 14th consecutive month of increase, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. In the first four months of this year, industrial and manufacturing production indices expanded 14.31 percent and 15.22 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed. The growth momentum is to extend into this month, with the manufacturing production index expected to rise between 11 percent and 15.1 percent annually, Department of Statistics
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
RSS