The scandal regarding some rather nasty blowing-up-in-your-face-if-they-don't-catch-fire-instead notebook batteries has been the first step in the demise of Sony in the computer industry. This continued with the not so successful and the much delayed launch of the PS3 gaming console. Now Sony Pictures Entertainment has signed a $3.8 million contract with IBM for a period of five years in which IBM will support its "global financial system."

The agreement expands a previously signed contract between the two companies. The current agreement stated that IBM Global Business Services will provide "application management services for SPE's SAP global financial applications, leveraging IBM's India-based global delivery capabilities" and will allow IT personnel to focus on high-priority projects and improvement initiatives.

David Hendler, chief financial officer for Sony Pictures Entertainment said: "Here at Sony Pictures, we have put a real priority on fiscal discipline and the integration and growth of our business on a worldwide scale. So our financial system must perform at optimum levels to give us a global view of financial and product information across our filmed entertainment business. IBM offers us a low-cost and high-quality support model for the global SAP skills that we require. We've brought in global reinforcements to augment our SPE staff, have substantially reduced our support costs, and redeployed our IT and finance staff on high-value activities."

This means that Sony will have their back side taken care of for them, and hopefully that, according to the terms of the agreement, they will improve their business and get over past unsuccessful attempts of "taking over the world." Well in the particular case of the exploding batteries, it wasn't that much of a downfall due to the low quality of the materials being used in the construction process, but it was also due to some bad luck which came their way, maybe a big black cat passed in front of the factory where they were manufacturing the batteries, who knows. All I'm saying is that this incident could have happened to any manufacturer, not just to them, they only had the misfortune of having to take the fall for it.