Toshiba Corp. is close to selling its sensor business to Sony Corp. for about ¥20 million, or about $165 million, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The company is looking to sell its assets and raise cash following an accounting scandal.
One of the people, who asked not to be named because discussions are private, told Bloomberg that a deal could be announced as early as next week.
The company's reported profit over seven years was cut by about $1.3 billion due to accounting irregularities, forcing Toshiba to raise cash.
Venture Beat adds that Masashi Muromachi, Toshiba's new CEO following the accounting scandal, had promised at that time that the company will restructure lower-margin businesses.
The sale of the company's sensor business is the beginning of its restructuring.
Venture Beat adds that sources say Toshiba is planning to sell its image sensor manufacturing plant in Oita, Japan and pull out of the sensor business altogether.
Image sensors, which are used in digital cameras and smartphones, are part of the company's system LSI semiconductor business.
Toshiba's sensor business will increase Sony's control of the market.
Bloomberg adds that 40 percent of the $8.7 billion image sensor market is already controlled by Sony, with its biggest competitor controlling about 16 percent.
The image sensor market is forecasted to grow to about $12 billion by 2019, and Sony expects its sales to increase by as much as 62 percent.
Bloomberg adds that Sony is already the leader in global market share for chips that cameras and smartphones use for capturing digital pictures.
Sony already quadrupled its spending on semiconductors this year to ¥290 billion.
Bloomberg adds the company's increased spending is to meet the demand for its sensors from customers, which include Apple, Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
Venture Beat adds that Sony's other customers include China's Xiaomi and India's Micromax Informatics.
