Sony has confirmed that subsidiary Sony Computer Entertainment is selling their entire 8.2 per cent minority stake in fellow Japanese publisher Square Enix.
Sony will sell SCE’s 9.52 million Square Enix shares to SMBC Nikko Securities at an estimated profit of circa 4.8 billion JPY (US$47 million). The exact price will be revealed by the company on closure of the sale.
Sony previously announced several cost-cutting measures for the current fiscal year, including the closure of circa two-thirds of the company’s 31 Sony retail outlets in the US, 5,000 layoffs worldwide, the sale of Sony’s Vaio PC operations and the spin-off of Sony’s television division.
Earnings from the stock sale will be included in Sony’s first quarter financial results for the current fiscal year ending 31 March 2015.
