A little more about Sony from bloomberg:
Sony to Announce Reshuffle Today or Tomorrow, FT Says (Update1)
By Dave McCombs and Pavel Alpeyev
Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. is preparing to release details of a restructuring plan today or tomorrow that’s pitting Chairman Howard Stringer against executives in its electronics division, the Financial Times reported.
Stringer’s plan to cut jobs, announced in December, faces opposition from an “old guard” of managers in the electronics business, the newspaper reported today, citing a senior person it didn’t identify. The report isn’t based on Sony’s announcement, spokeswoman Mami Imada said by telephone from Tokyo.
A much larger-than-anticipated deterioration in the economy spurred Sony on Dec. 9 to announce plans for 16,000 job cuts and say it may revise profit targets. The company said at the time it will curtail investments, farm out production and move away from unprofitable businesses by March 2010 to save more than 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) a year.
“The employment issue is a very delicate one and it’s easy to imagine it becoming the center of managerial dispute,” said Nobu Kurahashi, an analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. in Tokyo with a “neutral plus” rating on Sony. “Mr. Stringer should exercise his leadership in carrying out the restructuring and showing a vision for the company.”
Details of the financial impact of the measures will be given in January, when the company reports fiscal third-quarter results, Sony said in December.
Sony fell 3 percent to 1,964 yen as of 9:46 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, its lowest since Dec. 30. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 2 percent.
The disagreement centers on whether products such as televisions have become commodities, the newspaper reported. The coming announcement will include details of where the job reductions will take place, it said.
Sony on Oct. 23 forecast that net income will probably drop 59 percent in the year ending March 31 to 150 billion yen, reducing the outlook by 38 percent as the stronger yen and slumping demand undermine sales of its electronics including Bravia televisions. The company also makes PlayStation game consoles, Walkman music players and Cyber-shot digital cameras.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aWXg3xlvMtb8
