Sony subsidiary leaving University of Illinois campus

CHAMPAIGN - A subsidiary of Sony Corporation that focuses on biotechnology is closing its operations on the University of Illinois campus and moving to California.

Sony spokeswoman Lisa Gephardt tells The News-Gazette in Champaign that Sony Biotechnology will shut down its office in the university's Research Park in September and open a new headquarters in San Jose, California.

Gephardt said employees were told Wednesday.

She said 12 of the 22 employees will have the chance to stay with the company. Ten jobs will be eliminated.

The company at one point employed about 90 people.

Sony Biotechnology manufactures technology used to count and sort cells and in protein engineering.

The company was founded in 1995 as Cytometry Services Inc. and moved to the campus in 2000. Sony bought the company in 2010.