Sony will establish the 'Sony Semiconductor Solutions' company as part of a series of measures to reinforce its Devices segment, namely the semiconductor, battery and storage media businesses. Sony said that the Devices segment will continue to be overseen by Tomoyuki Suzuki, Executive Deputy President and Corporate Executive Officer, Sony Corporation.

R&D, business control, sales and other operations related to the semiconductor business, which are currently overseen by business groups and R&D units within Sony Corporation, will be transferred to Sony Semiconductor Solutions. The new company will aim to commence operations on April 1, 2016.

As part of its mid-term corporate strategy announced in February 2015, Sony outlined its intention to sequentially split out the business units currently within Sony Corporation and operate them alongside existing Sony Group companies.

"The aim of these measures is to ensure clearly attributable accountability and responsibility from the perspective of shareholders, management policies with an emphasis on sustainable profit generation, and the acceleration of decision-making processes and reinforcement of business competitiveness," Sony said.

Terushi Shimizu, currently Deputy President, Device Solutions Business Group, Sony Corporation, is expected to be appointed President, Sony Semiconductor Solutions. Sony Semiconductor Corporation and Sony LSI Design Inc., which cover Sony's semiconductor manufacturing and design operations respectively, will become subsidiaries of Sony Semiconductor Solutions.

In the battery business, Sony Energy Devices Corporation will continue to engage in integrated business and manufacturing operations.

In the storage media business, business functions currently located within Sony Corporation will be transferred to Sony Storage Media and Devices Corporation, which currently engages in manufacturing.

Sony also targets April 2016 for the completion of this transfer.