Although most news circulating around the web about the deffective batteries has to do with Dell or Apple (including one airline not allowing Dell laptops which im sure Dell's PR is very happy about) the company that stands to loose the most seems to be Sony. They are the ones who originally manufactured the defective batteries and then they were bought buy companies like Dell and Apple. So far almost several million batteries are going to be recalled and companies stand to loose billions. Although Sony does not stand to loose all that much money right now they are loosing brand trust and stock is falling and they are also expecting their own recall of batteries used in Sony Vaio computers. From my perspective there is no way that Dell, Apple, and other computer makers are going to rely so heavily on Sony made parts from now on. This is probably why the two companies have gotten together with Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo to come up with new battery standards. Now if two of the biggest players on the personal computer manufacturing market suddenly stop buying a product it could have massive repercussions on a corporation like Sony. People have seen Sony slipping in other areas for some time now. The best example of this is the Playstation 3 which seems like it is going to be way to overpriced and not as featureful as promised again losing out to Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has most of the next generation console market already, and the affordable and innovative Nintendo Wii. It has long been expected that Sony would make a shift in their company practices, but we have yet to see it and it continues to slip.

Here is a cool visual of the batter recall problem:
http://news.com.com/2104-1041_3-6109550.html?tag=st.bp

sources:
Cnet News
Business Week
Apple Insider