Sony really means it! (Japan)

Thursday December 27, 9:53 pm Eastern Time
Sony in talks with Fujitsu on Net business
(UPDATE: Recasts, adds companies\' comments, background)

TOKYO, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Japan\'s Sony Corp said on Friday it was in talks with computer giant Fujitsu Ltd about possible cooperation in the Internet business.
ADVERTISEMENT



Sony did not elaborate on the content of the talks. Both companies said no decision had been reached.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, however, reported on Friday that Sony was in talks to acquire Nifty Corp, Japan\'s largest Internet service provider, for about 100 billion yen ($762.7 million) from Fujitsu.

It said Sony aims to be the biggest Internet service provider in Japan by buying Nifty, while Fujitsu hopes to improve its financial standing through the deal and focus its management resources on its mainstay systems business.

Fujitsu forecasts a group net loss of 310 billion yen for the year to March 2002.

The newspaper report sent Sony\'s shares up 2.92 percent to 5,990 yen by the close. Shares in Fujitsu were unchanged at 954 yen, while the main Nikkei average ended up 0.81 percent.

Sony has been gearing up to enhance its high-speed Internet access business as the number of broadband service subscribers grows.

In the six months to September, the number of ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) users surged to 350,800 from 70,700, according to the Multimedia Research Institute.

To offer new broadband network services to its PlayStation 2 game users, Sony this month formed alliances with various Internet service providers such as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp , Softbank Corp and Yahoo Japan Corp .

Using its partners\' networks, Sony aims to provide a wide range of digital content -- from videos to music to game software to financial products -- via the Internet.

Sony hopes that its popular PlayStation game machines would serve as an easy-to-use device for accessing the Internet and the burgeoning online entertainment market.

Sony has already shipped more than 23 million PlayStation 2 units since it was introduced 1-1/2 years ago.

($1 equals 131.10 Yen)

(Taken from GA)

Wont effect us here in Europe or you in the states.. But this is big news in Japan..

I wonder what they\'re planning for the HDD/BBA?

Doesn\'t really say much about what these talks are about.

I\'ve heard of this company but what is it they do again ?

I wonder if they\'re still planning to use the PS2 and it\'s broadband capabilities as a platform to launch a variant of their Community Place VRML browser? Yeah, I know they have Netscape doin their browser.. but it\'s going to be a tailor made browser with possible VRML plugins.

Hmm.. I can\'t wait for the day when going to chatrooms is akin to a normal day in PSO\'s lobbys, and surfing a site means actually having an onscreen avattar to explore a miniature world that the web designer crafted. If reveloutionizing the net like that is one of the cards Sony has up their sleeves.. I wonder what kind of moves Microsoft would take to counter it?