Sony Corp is selling its 5% stake in Olympus Corp back to the Japanese medical equipment maker for 80.4 billion yen ($762.88 million),

Sony said in a statement it decided to sell “considering that the initial purpose of the capital alliance to establish collaboration between Sony and Olympus has been accomplished and after reviewing the rationale for owning the Olympus shares.”

Sony bought 11.5% of Olympus in 2012-13, paying 50 billion yen in a much-needed cash injection for the latter after an accounting scandal sent Olympus’ share price plummeting. Sony later halved its stake to finance its own restructuring.

We can be very near before Olympus division will be closed (within 12 months) or merged.

The most dangerous are very light talks that Samsung have interest in the leading engineers and designers (but not in the division itself).