Sony sets aside $429 mln for PC battery recall cost

TOKYO, Oct 19 (Reuters) Sony Corp. said on Thursday it would set aside 51 billion yen (9 million) of reserves for expected costs related to the recent wave of recalls of its notebook PC batteries by computer makers.

Besides Sony itself, major PC suppliers including Dell Inc., Apple Computer Inc., Lenovo Group Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. are recalling a total of about 8 million Sony batteries, which the company has said can on rare occasions overheat and catch fire.

Sony said in August that recalls by Dell and Apple, the first two computer makers that announced the recalls, would cost it between 20 billion yen and 30 billion yen.

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