Sony Corporation (hereafter Sony) and NEC Corporation (hereafter NEC) today announced that they have signed an agreement to transfer NEC's 45% stock in Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. to Sony.

Sony and NEC separated their optical disc drive businesses and combined each company's respective strengths in the Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. joint venture, established April 3, 2006, with the aim of achieving further business expansion.

As a result of this agreement, Sony will make Sony NEC Optiarc Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Sony group, and will seek to strengthen its interaction with Sony group's product and device businesses to further streamline decision-making processes, enhance management responsiveness and further reinforce its next-generation optical disc drive business.

NEC will continue to contribute to the advancement of Sony NEC Optiarc Inc.'s optical disc drive products through the LSI development being carried out at NEC Electronics Corporation.

Company Outline after the transfer

• Company Name (projected) :
  Sony Optiarc Inc.
• Business Profile :
  Development, engineering, production, marketing and sales of optical disc drive products
• Sales :
  FY07: Approximately 140 billion yen
• Date of Transfer (projected) :
  December, 2008
• Head Office Location :
  1-11-1 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo
• Representative :
  Shinichi Yamamura, Representative Director and President
• Capital (including reserves) :
  5.1 billion yen
• Number of Employees :
  Approximately 320 (As of July 1, 2008)
• Directors :
  Scheduled to be elected from within Sony Group

Completion of the transfer is subject to the approval of governmental authorities and regulatory bodies required in certain countries.