Sony denies Vaio-to-Lenovo rumour Another week, another major acquisition by Lenovo? Not so, says Sony, which has taken the unusual move of hosing down reports like this Reuters effort suggesting it's been chatting with Lenovo about taking on its loss-making PC business outside of Japan. Sony's response is blunt: “A press report on February 1, 2014 stated …
"It's hard to see how a alliance would be of any value to Lenovo."
Just off the top of my head how about this suggestion: the ThinkPads are marketed as the pinnacle of business reliability for portable PCs, and the VAIO range marketed towards the fashion/lifestyle end of things. That would be of some value, at least to the marketing bods, cos you got both markets covered.
Disclosure: I've owned both and have been happy with both.
Obviously written by a lawyer: by saying the press report as a whole is inaccurate, they have carefully avoided having to either confirm or deny any of the specifics. They may or may not be having discussions with Lenovo about something. They might be considering a business alliance with a different company. They might be planning to sell the Vaio unit entirely. I suspect they are up to something, but they don't want anyone to know yet.
What would be the point? Oh, sure, Sony would get rid of a loss-making line and gracefully exit an ever-tougher market, so there is sense in it for Sony. But why on earth would Lenovo be interested? What does Sony have to offer Lenovo to match the known and visible strengths of the legendary Thinkpad product line? Or Medion's market power in Germany? Or IBM's server business? Or Motorola's phone division? Each of those just mentioned was a strong, successful business with growth prospects. (Yes, even Motorola's phone division, which has fallen on hard times of late but still retains fundamental attributes which, under the right management, can and almost certainly will quickly blossom back into market share and profitability.) Sony's Vaio line, on the other hand, is just another notebook brand with no particular distinguishing qualities. Take the tarnished but still (curiously enough) respected Sony name away from the Vaio brand and there is nothing of any great value left. Why would Lenovo want to spend good money on, when it's all said and done, nothing much?
The one very useful thing (for Sony) talk of a Lenovo buyout could achieve is to hurry along some other buyer, push them to spend up big on Vaio "before Lenovo snaps it up". Not that you'd reckon any buyer smart enough to have the money would fall for it. Why would you spend up big to buy Vaio when you could probably get it by holding your water and spending up small - sooner or later, Sony has to stop bleeding money like water - or, better again, just letting it die a natural death on Sony's dollar instead of yours?
The other day, looking for a budget lappy for an acquaintance I stumbled on a Sony in the price range. I thought to myself, WTF is Sony doing in this price segment ????
They need to be selling high-end high-margin stuff, they have the cool factor of Apple FFS... Get the Hardware right -> alu designer casing ... smooth, no 3d multigon like HP/Lenovo with ends sticking out everywhere, latest CPU's and mobile GPU's ...
I think they should get the OS right as well, make a locked-down Linux with a sexy ui and Linux store for apps.
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