Sony Expects Steep Loss, Job Cuts

Sony on Thursday forecast an operating loss of $2.9 billion, which was almost four times what many analysts had predicted.

Sony blamed weaker worldwide demand, a stronger yen and myriad restructuring expenses for its decline, which will also include an expected net loss of $1.65 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, according to Bloomberg news.

"It's my responsibility to change Sony and bring it back to its former profitability, and it's my foremost priority," said Sony CEO Howard Stringer at a press conference in Tokyo Thursday. "We have to move in a hurry."

Sony's TV business remains its largest piece by revenue, and it hasn't posted an annual profit since March 2004. Stringer announced that neither he nor president Ryoji Chubachi or executive deputy president Katsumi Ihara would receive bonuses this year, Bloomberg reported, and that their combined salaries would be cut by 50 percent. The company will introduce an early retirement program for employees and also, as various news outlets reported yesterday, close a Japanese television factory and thus eliminate 1,000 temporary jobs.

Sony announced in December it would seek to cut 16,000 jobs -- half full-time, half temporary -- from its electronics divisions and shutter six factories. Its layoffs will expand to other businesses -- including in entertainment and video games. Sony has shed about 10,000 jobs over the past three years.

Tweet

   

More