Sony Backs Out of Optical Drive Business

Sony may not directly make and market optical disk drive units, but it does have a subsidiary that handles this small facet of its industry: Optiarc Incorporated.

Alas, for reasons described only as “fierce competition,” the division is going to shut down by March 2013.

Some of the 400 employees will get a lucky break and enter retirement early, while the rest will be transferred to a different division.

We must say that it is nice to hear of a reorganization move that doesn't result in mass job cuts.

That said, the shutting down of Optiarc Inc. will mark the end of the Sony PC Blu-ray drive business.

For our part, we aren't surprised at this at all. Optical drives in general have been seeing less and less use due to disks losing in appeal to flash drives and external HDDs/SSDs.