Sony Optiarc Inc., a subsidiary of Sony that is responsible for manufacturing the CD and DVD drives for PCs and laptops, will cease operations next March, a decision to complete the restructuring of a company that has been successful in fiscal year 2011.
Many of the 400 employees of the company will leave the ranks of Sony after the early retirement offer. The net loss of 5,800 million during fiscal year 2011 that Sony has focused its operations in key divisions such as video games or image sensors.
Likewise, the divisions have been audited without benefit, and for example has sold the chemical business and this company had also reduced the magnitude of a factory that had smartphones in Sweden.
Sony Optiarc maintained between 10 and 15% of the global market for optical disk drives in PCs and laptops, but has offered operating losses due to increasingly smaller notebook market and the price war in this competitive segment.
This decision will have no impact on the business of optical drives such as Blu-ray market for consumer electronics.