Sony Corp intends to invest about $17 billion in key businesses and technologies over the next three years as it aims for the top spot in the LCD TV market and ramps up sales of high-definition video equipment.

The company, which sells PlayStation 3 game consoles and Cybershot digital cameras, said it would also aim to double revenue from the fast-growing markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China to two trillion yen as part of a new three-year strategy through March 2011.

It wants to lift return on equity (ROE) to 10% from an average of about 6% over the past three years, and reach the 5% operating profit margin that eluded it in a previous plan, coming in at 4.2% in the year ended March.

Sony's current ROE is very low compared with global rivals such as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co, which boasts 14%, and Philips Electronics NV, which registers 23%, according to Reuters data.

“That target is a sign of Sony's sense of crisis that it could really become a takeover target if it doesn't lift its ROE to at least over 10%,” said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

Of the planned 1.8 trillion yen it aims to invest over the next three years, about half would go to its component and semiconductor operations which span image sensors, batteries, display devices and Bluray Disc-related parts.

The company said it would aim to bring its TV business back to profitability in the year to March 2009 by cutting production costs, and shoot for the biggest global share in LCD TVs, unseating current market leader Samsung.

The company, locked in a three-way battle with Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co Ltd in the global videogame industry, would launch video distribution services on its PlayStation network starting this summer, it said. – Reuters

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