Sony considers selling manufacturing facilities to Toshiba
by Andrew Yoon 
{ Oct 4th 2007 at 4:00PM }
The second time in less than a month, Sony is supposedly considering selling its chip manufacturing plants to rival electronics company Toshiba. According to a report by Reuters, "Sony was in negotiations with Toshiba to sell its manufacturing facilities in Nagasaki, also in western Japan, for advanced microchips including the Cell microprocessor." The Cell processor is a vital part of the PS3 architecture and is one of the costliest and most powerful aspects of the system.Although both companies have declined to comment, the Business Daily Nikkei has estimated the sale value of the production facilities at 100 billion yen ($856 million).
[Via Next Generation]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ruibing @ Oct 4th 2007 4:12PM
Operating cost of the facility must be too much to out weight its benefits. This is why Nvidia and ATI (when it was independent) don't own fabs. It's all about the marginal cost/profit.
Ben @ Oct 4th 2007 4:53PM
Aren’t Toshiba and Sony bitter enemies? One makes BlueRay and the other one HD-DVDs and they don't miss an opportunity to bash one another!
So confusing X__X
I'm glad they are cooperating nonetheless; I wish them both luck :)
Egster @ Oct 4th 2007 5:01PM
Bitter rivals? They co-developed the Cell chip.
Mark @ Oct 4th 2007 7:07PM
"Cell is a microprocessor architecture jointly developed by a Sony, Toshiba, and IBM"
bamf @ Oct 5th 2007 10:12AM
What exactly does this mean? If SOny sells the manufacturing plant does Sony lose having control over the Cell? What I'm saying is will Sony still have control over manufacturing cost as this helps to pass on the cost reduction to the consumer? And will Sony lose their part in future development of the Cell. There will be a PS4 in 6-8 years from now, will Sony still be partners with IBM and Toshiba and Sony uses a more advanced Cell, or will Sony have to pay for licenses to use the Cell, or go somewhere else?
Larz @ Oct 5th 2007 1:09PM
If it's sold it means in the future Sony will tell Toshiba what they want them to manufacture and Toshiba will set a price and handle the manufacturing. It doesn't make sense to do this in the long-term. The cost of owning a plant to manufacture millions and millions of chips is less than the cost of going to someone else for it. But it would generate some quick revenue in the short-term.
I don't like this because Sony is generally known for extremely high quality tech hardware. Toshiba just might reduce quality to save cost and gain more profit. Toshiba isn't terrible in quality or anything, but Sony is definitely top-dog in that regard.