Sony has announced that it is laying off 5,000 staff as part of major restructuring plans that will see the Japanese firm sell its Vaio PC business and spin its TV division into its own company. The layoffs will affect 1,500 staff in Japan and a further 3,500 overseas. A mixture of redundancies, early retirement and potential transfers to new companies will be offered to those selected within manufacturing, sales and administration in its TV and PC businesses. Sony believes it can trim its costs by one third over the next 15 months before the start of its 2015 financial year. There has been much speculation about the future of Sony’s Vaio business, so it comes as little surprise that the unit is being sold. The loss-making division is being bought by Japan Industrial Partners (JIP), the Japanese fund that was strongly linked with a deal this weekend (it was also suggested that Lenovo had been interested.)