Sony to sell all its Square Enix shares

Sony announced it's selling its entire stake of 9.52 million shares in Square Enix, with the PlayStation company booking a gain of 4.8 billion yen (around $47 million) in the current fiscal quarter. At the time of writing, Sony is the third-largest shareholder in Square Enix with an sizable equity of 8.2 percent.

Sony says it's agreed to sell the shares to SMBC Nikko Securities Inc, one of Japan's leading financial security companies; the sale price will be disclosed tomorrow. We'll learn more of the reasons behind the sale when Sony announces its full-year financial results on May 14.

While the PS4 is doing better than expected, Sony's financial troubles of late have seen the company enact numerous changes to its operations. Following the sale of its Tokyo offices and several thousands of layoffs, earlier this year Sony announced plans to sell off its Vaio PC business and overhaul its TV arm into its own subsidiary. Those moves will result in a further 5,000 layoffs over the next year or so.