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Sony president vows to improve electronics business by restructuring
[June 18, 2014]

Sony president vows to improve electronics business by restructuring


(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Sony Corp. President Kazuo Hirai said Thursday the company will improve its flagging electronics business by thoroughly conducting restructuring in the current fiscal year through March 2015.



"We will change the structure that led to repeated downward revisions in earnings forecasts and caused losses," Hirai said at a shareholders' meeting in Tokyo. "We will complete the restructuring in fiscal 2014 and will not postpone it to the next financial year." As part of such restructuring efforts, the electronics giant decided to sell its Vaio personal computer business to Tokyo-based investment fund Japan Industrial Partners Inc. and spin off the television operation into a wholly owned unit in July.

In fiscal 2013 ended in March, Sony posted a group net loss of 128.37 billion yen after revising down forecasts three times. It projects a net loss of 50 billion yen this year due mainly to costs associated with withdrawing from its PC business.


On the television business that incurred losses for the 10th consecutive financial year, Hirai said he believes the company can bring it back to the black in the current year, noting that the firm will further cut costs and focus on high value-added products such as 4K televisions, which display images four times finer than high-definition resolution.

He added that the company will continue to place importance on the core gaming, mobile and imaging businesses and promote sales of such mainstay products as the PlayStation4 home-gaming console and Xperia smartphones.

Asked about his responsibility over the weak business performance, Hirai said he takes seriously the fact that the company could not quickly and actively respond to the changing environment, while pledging to realize business growth by slashing fixed costs.

The shareholders approved the appointment of 12 board members, including former U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos.

(c) 2014 Kyodo News

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