Sony Corp.’s share price down, warns over a battery defect with Vaio Fit devices, considers a recall

Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. made an official statement today, asking its customers to stop using its Vaio Fit 11A notebook computers as soon as possible due to a battery defect. The company explained there is a risk of batteries overheating that affects the DC jack inlet or LCD surrounding area.

Sony Corp. said in its statement that customers should stop using their Vaio Fit devices because there is possibility that the battery causes fire damage to the laptop. The customers will be able to find out if their Fit laptops are affected by the eventual problem by checking the devices serial numbers, which are placed on the underside of every device. In case a users notebook is a part of the defected series, they should bring them to the nearest Sony Service Centre and get free repairs.

Companys spokesman Stewart Pagan made a statement, cited by Itnews: “The laptop computers overheat in the section connecting the display and the keyboard, as the joint section bites into a bunch of wires inside the computer.” According to the company, the problem is “a poorly placed wire and/or dislodged screw in the hinge”.

Sony Corp. said that it had identified three cases of overheating batteries of its Vaio Fit 11A laptop and is considering to withdraw the notebooks from the market due to this defect. According to companys statement, a total of 25 905 products from the Vaio series, produced between May 2007 and July 2008, have been sold since February 2014. 7 158 of them were sold in Europe, 2 088 in China and other 497 were sold in the U.S.

This problem is considered a severe blow to Sony, while Chief Executive Officer – Kazuo Hirai – has been struggling to revive the consumer electronics business of the company. Mr. Hirai has undertaken lay-offs and restructuring procedures in an attempt to improve the situation.

The Chief Executive Officer of Sony Corp. is also considering a spin-off of its TV manufacturing division until July 2014 and selling its Vaio computer unit to Japan Industrial Partners Inc. As reported by Bloomberg, one of the fund managers working for Mizuho Asset Management Co. – Takashi Aoki said: “The impact on Sony stock price would be limited. Sony already decided to spin off the Vaio business.”

According to Financial Times, shares of Sony Corp. fell 0.16% to close at 1,876 JPY in Tokyo today, while companys one year return rate was 11.34%. The same media reported that the 19 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Sony Corp. have a median target of 2,100, with a high estimate of 2,800 and a low estimate of 1,400. The median estimate represents a 11.76% increase from the last price of 1,879.