Sony To Cut 10,000 Jobs

Sony’s name may have been synonymous with high-tech prestige and marketshare for decades, but they’re feeling the economic pinch right now as they cut 10,000 jobs — roughly 6 percent of their global workforce. Four years in the red have forced Sony’s hand, and this, alas, is not their first attempt to slice off the fat in that same time.

An iPhone-loving sycophant like me might attribute the loss strictly to Apple’s dominance in the mobile sector, but it seems to be in the TV department where Sony is taking it hardest: Sony, Panasonic and Sharp are reported to have lost a combined $17 billion in the last fiscal year. Kazuo Hirai has just recently taken over as CEO from Howard Stringer, and feels his arrival opens some doors. According to Yahoo

“Under a new CEO, it’s easier to cut jobs or go in a new direction,” said Yuuki Sakurai, head of fund manager Fukoku Capital, which had around $7 billion worth of assets under management as of end-March 2011. “One of the things I’d like to see is that they shift their resources to other areas outside TVs … If they stick to TVs, they may have to fight a war they may not be able to win.”

Yahoo also reports that Sony may ask all seven executive directors who served through the fiscal year  (including Stringer) to return their bonuses. Sony did not respond to this question but Hirai instead said a word in ancient Sumerian and burst into a cloud of ravens, flying away.

Source: Yahoo
Via: The Loop

Corey has been been a tech journalist with a focus on Apple since 1998 and has written for The Loop, MacHome magazine, and as games contributor for The Mac Bible, and co-hosts the iGame Radio Podcast. He works as a corporate consultant and professional musician in Ottawa, Ontario.