I wonder what parts of the company they're planning on selling.
Sony have a baseline profitability of about $1.5bn a year because their financial services division is just that profitable. The consumer and pro side is break even at best, it neither loses nor makes money. Without the non-cash charges of $5bn the bottom line wouldn't look so bad and really the only division that loses money is TVs and Kaz has pretty much said Sony will back out of TVs if they keep losing money in it.
If Sony manage to cut the TV losses they will have a baseline profitability of around $3bn a year, if they can't and need to cut it entirely they will take a one off charge of around $4bn to jettison the business but it cuts out $1.5bn worth of annual losses.
Other than that Sony are looking competitive in phones, and if they are going to make a Vita Phone then I expect their position to get even better as the hardware inside the Vita is pretty advanced and as Sony/Toshiba bring their own 28/32nm foundries online they will be able to control costs for the Vita SoC.
Finally, in order to properly compete, all Japanese electronics companies will have to consolidate. At Sony I would look at merging with Toshiba as there are a lot of synergies to be had. Toshiba have a stronger laptops division, but Sony Vaio is a stronger brand. Toshiba could exit TVs altogether as it is a big money loser for them, Toshiba would become the overnight market leader in image sensors and processors, Sony would gain access to cutting edge lithography tech to push it harder. From a business point of view, a merger between these two old rivals makes a lot of sense, but I'm not sure it would be palatable to the management as it would be a massive climbdown for both boards. Neither company is particularly profitable and Toshiba are going to have a massive loss associated with their buyout of Westinghouse Power as the demand for nuclear reactors has be destroyed since the Fukushima disaster.
What I would like to see is the Japanese government enabling a merger and then taking an interest in the merged company giving it $20-30bn worth of capital for investment so that they can properly compete with Samsung. It would be almost free for the Japanese government who borrow at just 1% a year and the investment would pay for itself with dividends paid out and with the rise in value that the shares would see. Right now the situation for Japanese industry is desperate and the government needs to step in with more initiatives like JDI Inc. If they don't I can see one of Panasonic, Sharp, Sony or Pioneer going bankrupt. Probably two, my guesses would be Sharp and Panasonic.
