Businessweek

Sony Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, manufacture, and sale of electronic equipment, instruments, and devices for consumer, professional, and industrial markets, as well as game hardware and software. The company's products are marketed worldwide by sales subsidiaries and unaffiliated distributors, as well as direct sales via the Internet. The company also engages in the development, production and acquisition, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and broadcasting of image-based software, including motion picture, home entertainment, and television products. It is also engaged in the development, production and acquisition, manufacture, and distribution of recorded music. In addition, it engages in various financial services businesses, including life and non-life insurance operations through its Japanese insurance subsidiaries and banking operations through a Japanese Internet-based banking subsidiary. Further, the company engages in a network services business and an advertising agency business in Japan. Segments The company's operating segments include Consumer Products & Services (CPS); Professional, Device & Solutions (PDS); Pictures; Music; Financial Services; Sony Mobile Communications (Sony Mobile); and All Other. CPS The CPS segment includes televisions, home audio and video, digital imaging, personal and mobile products, and the game business. Products and Services Televisions: Televisions include liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions. Home Audio and Video: Home Audio and Video includes Blu-ray Disc players/recorders, home theater, home audio systems, and DVD-Video players. Digital Imaging: Digital Imaging includes compact digital cameras, home-use video cameras, and interchangeable single-lens cameras. Personal and Mobile Products: Personal and Mobile Products includes PCs and memory-based portable audio devices. Game: Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) develops, produces, markets, and distributes PlayStation3 (PS3), PlayStation Vita (PS Vita), PSP (PlayStation Portable) (PSP) and PlayStation2 (PS2) hardware, related package software, and Sony Entertainment Network (SEN) service. Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (SCEA) and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd. (SCEE) market and distribute PS3, PS Vita, PSP, and PS2 hardware, and develop, produce, market, and distribute related package software and PSN service locally in the U.S. and Europe. SCEI, SCEA and SCEE enter into licenses with third-party software developers and publishers. PDS The PDS segment includes professional solutions, semiconductors, and components. Professional Solutions: Include broadcast- and professional-use products, and other B2B business. Semiconductors: Includes complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors, charged coupled devices (CCDs), system LSIs, and other semiconductors. Components: Includes batteries, audio/video/data recording media, storage media, optical pickups, chemical products, and optical disk drives. Chemical products include materials and components for electronic devices, such as anisotropic conductive films. Pictures The Pictures segment is engaged in the development, production and acquisition, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and broadcasting of image-based software, including motion picture, home entertainment and television products. Global operations in the Pictures segment encompass motion picture production, acquisition and distribution; television production, acquisition and distribution; television networks; digital content creation and distribution; operation of studio facilities; and development of new entertainment products, services and technologies, including 3D. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE) distributes entertainment in approximately 159 countries. SPE’s motion picture production organizations include Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, and Sony Pictures Classics. Sony Pictures Digital Production operates Sony Pictures Imageworks, a digital production studio, and Sony Pictures Animation, a developer and producer of animated films. SPE also man