I did mention car companies (and AIG is mostly an insurer of those failing corporations, so no surprise there).

Yes, the Japanese electronics companies are all suffering, but I don't think they're doing worse than Sony. Some have much better prospects due to not having much debt. In fact most Japanese companies are more conservative and therefore more resilient than Sony, not taking as much debt for example.

My point stands that Sony is one of the companies which is doing worst excluding banks and car companies... You don't see most companies doing as much restructuring as Sony is doing.

well to be fair, it's only the management getting a wage cut, everyone else gets a freeze. unless you factor in price inflation (but Japan has deflation, doesn't it?)

Also, they still get bonuses, just less of a bonus.

Not too bad of a deal, it could have been much worse imo.

Like I said earlier, they should do this at the bailed out banks.

Basicly the problem sorts itself out.

Huge cutbacks = mass lay-offs in Japan = suïcide rate up = profit for any undertaker business.

 http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=397095

Big Electronics Makers Eyeing Pay Freeze

TOKYO, March 18 (Bernama) -- Major Japanese makers of electronic and electrical equipment are planning pay freezes or effective pay cuts for the 2009 business year as they prepare their wage proposals Wednesday in response to union demands in this year's ''shunto'' annual wage talks, Japan's Kyodo news reported citing industry sources as saying Tuesday.

Toshiba Corp. plans to freeze employees' wages in the first six months of the year starting April 1 due to its deteriorating earnings under the current economic slump, they said.

Toshiba is the first major Japanese electrical machinery maker to be reported to be planning to freeze automatic pay hikes. The company expects to log a group net loss of 280 billion yen for fiscal 2008 ending this month, as its mainstay semiconductor division has been hard hit by the recession.

Sharp Corp. also said the same day it plans to temporarily postpone a regular wage hike. The Osaka-based consumer electronics maker and its union also agreed on annual bonuses equal to 4.1 months of wages, down sharply from 5.26 months of bonuses last year.

Japanese firms set a pay scale, or a table for basic wages, based on which workers� wages automatically increases every year by a certain amount according to seniority and length of service.

An employee on the scale is supposed to see an increase at the start of a new business year. But freezing a regular increase means cancellation of the expected wage rise for employees.

Hitachi Ltd. plans to increase the number of unpaid holidays in effectively cutting wages, while Sanyo Electric Co. is considering a freeze on automatic pay increases, the sources said.

Panasonic Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and other manufacturers are expected to turn down demands for wage hikes.

Automakers will also present their wage proposals to unions on Wednesday. Toyota Motor Corp. and its union have virtually agreed on bonuses equal to five months' wages plus 100,000 yen, which average 1.86 million yen, down 670,000 yen from the previous year.

While the labour union of Nissan Motor Co. is calling for an automatic wage increase of 6,000 yen per month, the management team has yet to decide whether to accept the demand. Unions at some other automakers may fail to secure regular wage increases.

Toyota, Nissan and other automakers, including Honda Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp., intend to reject demands for pay hikes, the sources said. Pay proposals by makers of electric equipment and automobiles on Wednesday will draw strong attention as they will set the pace for overall wage negotiations, which are getting tougher for labor unions in light of worsening corporate earnings amid the global economic slowdown.

The Japanese Electrical Electronic & Information Union, the umbrella organization of labour unions in the electrical equipment industry, maintains that the management side should agree at least on automatic wage hikes if they wish to avoid walkouts by workers. (RM1=26.83 yen)

@Noobie: That's all true but it doesn't really contradict what I said (as I said in the reply to Jo21).

I know quite a number of hardware and software companies having to do with assorted portions of the XBox 360, PS3, and Wii doing everything from laying off 15% or more of their workforce, to chopping everyone in the company's salaries by 10% AND axing all bonuses.

In my opinion, Sony is really holding it together well, all things considered. They hold together as a family, which is cool, in my book. I assume its a Japanese company thing, whereas the American companies are more into layoffs, which is lame. I'd rather take a 10% pay cut than see 15-20% of my team/friends get laid off, and having to work weekends for the next couple years to make up for their absence.

The fact that Sony is simply in a hiring freeze, not handing out raises, and is cutting bonuses only partially is a frickin' miracle. You wouldn't believe how many companies in the tech industry would love to be that generous.

I suppose you didn't read this:

Sony to lay off 16,000

Shh, don't ruin his image of Sony. It's such a beautiful homely family image!

You're gonna make me post the MS layoffs, and include the contractors, as is included in that 16K number?

If we're talking game divisions, one of those two divisions has axed thousands, and closed a myriad of studios over the past year.  The other... 0.  I know people who work at Sony, MS, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, Atari, and a myriad of other game companies, as well as people at AMD, IBM, nVidia, HP, etc.  None of those places is anywhere near as pleasant to work at today, thanks to the economy, and Sony is doing admirably well for the awful situation they are in -- SCE in particular.  If they have to make any serious cuts, it'll be a loss to Sony, and the industry as a whole, since many of those people will probably not find decent jobs in the game industry for several years (although independant studios are hiring like crazy, since all the big studios layoffs has made tons of "sweatshop" work for them to scramble for), and thus, will leave for good.

The end result of the big publishers being hurt by the economy is that games lose budget, get rushed out quicker, and are made by lower quality teams.  Good times behind, for gamers.

In what little positive can come with this news, it definitely seems like Stringer is taking in the reigns of the company and doing what they need to do to survive through this mess. This will probably be a dark scar on the companies history, but it's always darkest before the dawn. If these are the steps that are necessary to ensure to survival and continued success of the company then there is really no avoiding it.