Well, this is interesting:

Japan's SONY CORP. (TSE:6758) has taken out an 80 billion yen (US$698 million) syndicated loan from a group of 20 or so domestic financial institutions to diversify its sources of funding, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Monday. The move marks the major electronics firm's first bank loan since 1995.

I heard about that on yesterday's Buzz Out Loud podcast, while I was off jogging. Like the hosts, I wonder whether the huge PS3/Blu-Ray investment is starving Sony of ready cash for other things they want to do - apparently, much of that money is earmarked for completely different parts of the business.

This follows the ongoing layoffs at Sony - 10,000 by 2008. If the PS3 launch goes badly, it could be some very rough sailing for Sony...