In a move to focus on their core businesses, Sony Corp. announced Wednesday that it will sell its microchip production facilities in western Japan to Toshiba Corp. for 90 billion yen ($835 million).
The equipment will be used by their semiconductor joint venture that will make high-performance Cell chips and RSX graphic chips, both used in Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console, as well as other microchips that go into Toshiba products, according to Reuters.
Sony has been pulling away from heavy investments for cutting-edge chip production equipment and focusing on image sensor chips for digital cameras. Last year, Sony said that it would sell production facilities for making key microchips used in the PS3 to Toshiba, but the price has been unavailable.
This announcement comes at the heels of Toshiba’s decision Tuesday to pull out of the HD DVD business, giving Sony’s Blu-ray camp a free run.
