Sony Corp announced on Tuesday that it will spin off its home entertainment business into a joint venture with China's TCL Electronics Holdings Ltd to enhance its global competitiveness. TCL will hold a 51 percent stake, with Sony owning the remaining 49 percent. The new entity will continue using the Sony name and Bravia TV brand.
Sony's electronics unit is taking this bold step amid a declining global market share in televisions. Its TV sales for the fiscal year ending March 2025 dropped 9.6 percent from the previous year to 564.1 billion yen ($3.6 billion). The joint venture will manage the entire process, from product development and design to manufacturing and sales, while retaining the Sony name and Bravia TV brand.
The two companies plan to finalize binding agreements by the end of March and launch the business in April 2027. Sony entered the television market in 1960 with the world's first direct-view portable transistor TV. Its proprietary Trinitron cathode-ray tubes, introduced in 1968 for TVs and computer monitors, became a global success, and the company launched the world's first OLED television in 2007.
TCL, the world's second-largest TV shipper, moved 29 million units in 2024, securing about 14 percent of the global market. The firm has been expanding internationally through aggressive low-price strategies. Through this partnership, Sony aims to leverage TCL's strengths, particularly in China, to regain competitive edge.
