SONY TO ABSORB AIWA, WILL MAINTAIN AIWA BRAND NAME.

AsiaPulse News, September, 2002

TOKYO, Sept 30 Asia Pulse - Sony Corp. (TSE:6758) said Friday that it will absorb Aiwa Co. (TSE:6761) on Dec. 1.

Sony had already decided to turn the ailing audiovisual equipment maker into a wholly owned subsidiary on Oct. 1. By absorbing Aiwa, Sony aims to improve management efficiency and expedite revising its strategy for the groupwide audiovisual equipment business.

Although Sony will liquidate the subsidiary, it will maintain the Aiwa brand name and absorb Aiwa's roughly 500 employees.

Following the announcement in late February that it will turn Aiwa into a wholly owned subsidiary, Sony shut down all of Aiwa's domestic and overseas plants and sales offices, and reduced the number of Aiwa group staff to around 500 from 4,700 as of the end of...