Toshiba To Sell Sensor Business To Sony For Around $165 Million

Toshiba whose businesses range from laptops to nuclear power, is sealing the deal at around 20 billion yen ($164.68 million). The sale is likely to be finalised soon, the sources said.

The company is undergoing a restructuring after revelations this year that it overstated earnings by $1.3 billion going back to fiscal 2008/09. Image sensors, are part of Toshiba’s system LSI semiconductor business. They are used in digital cameras and smartphones. Toshiba plans to sell its image sensor manufacturing plant in Oita, southern Japan. It plans to pull out of the sensor business altogether, added the sources, who declined to be identified.

Officials from Sony declined to comment.

Masashi Muromachi, Toshiba’s CEO, has promised to restructure lower-margin businesses.

On Saturday, Nikkei reported, the deal for the image sensor business would be the beginning of the restructuring.

Sony is already a dominant player in the image sensor market. Its products are used in phones made by China’s Xiaomi and India’s Micromax Informatix Ltd.