Sony to cut 10,000 jobs

[Wizerzak]

Sony is planning to cut six per cent of its global workforce - around 10,000 jobs - in a major restructuring drive, according to a number of Japanese news reports.
As detailed by the Associated Press, the redundancies will play out over the next 12 months and form part of incoming CEO Kaz Hirai's strategy to return the electronics giant to profit.
It's not known what departments will be worst hit.
Sony hasn't yet confirmed the news but is expected to hold a press conference on Thursday.
The company's recent financial troubles have been well documented - it announced massive losses of £1.3 billion for its last financial quarter.
It blamed its recent downturn on floods in Thailand disrupting manufacturing, the "deterioration in market conditions in developed countries" and "unfavourable foreign exchange"

Source

It says 'global workforce' so it could mean anyone working for Sony (ie shop staff, which wouldn't affect their products - though I doubt they have 10000 surplus people working in the stores). Still, I am curious as to why they feel they need to do this.

 

[emigre]

It looks like some cutting some cloth to sort out their financial situation.

 

[Deleted_171835]

Still, I am curious as to why they feel they need to do this.

>Sony to cut 10,000 jobs, 6% of its global workforce to be let go in cost-cutting drive.

It says so right in the title?

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Still, I am curious as to why they feel they need to do this.

Kinda explained that in the article (or could be a reason why):

The company's recent financial troubles have been well documented - it announced massive losses of £1.3 billion for its last financial quarter.
It blamed its recent downturn on floods in Thailand disrupting manufacturing, the "deterioration in market conditions in developed countries" and "unfavourable foreign exchange"

Also they have a new boss so it could just be regular restructuring like most new bosses do.

 

[Wizerzak]

Still, I am curious as to why they feel they need to do this.

>Sony to cut 10,000 jobs, 6% of its global workforce to be let go in cost-cutting drive.

It says so right in the title?

I meant why they need to cut costs. Unless they are struggling right now, which I was not aware of.

 

[emigre]

Sony have been making losses in the last ten or so financial years. They need to sort themselves out. Some sectors of Sony are profitable such as the Gaming division but their television division has been bloody poor.

 

[Hadrian]

According to a BBC writer, Sony say they're not:

Sony, speaking to the BBC, have denied the Nikkei newspaper report that they're about to axe 10,000 jobs

https://twitter.com/#!/tim_weber/status/189264952396222464

They're actually gonna cut 9,999 jobs

 

[Wizerzak]

Sony have been making losses in the last ten or so financial years. They need to sort themselves out. Some sectors of Sony are profitable such as the Gaming division but their television division has been bloody poor.

Lol, let me rephrase that "I didn't know they were struggling more than usual"

 

[Foxi4]

Cost-cutting doesn't necessarily mean that they're struggling - they could be just as well cutting jobs that simply aren't necessary for them. As the industry changes so do the seats.

 

[Just Another Gamer]

I kinda feel sorry for all the people who will lose their jobs.

 

[Midna]

It says 'global workforce' so it could mean anyone working for Sony (ie shop staff, which wouldn't affect their products - though I doubt they have 10000 surplus people working in the stores). Still, I am curious as to why they feel they need to do this.

Because every division bar one or two of the entire company has been taking massive losses. They even sold off most of their TV line to Samsung earlier. You know the people who say Sony is dying? They're not far off the mark.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Cost-cutting doesn't necessarily mean that they're struggling - they could be just as well cutting jobs that simply aren't necessary for them. As the industry changes so do the seats.

Pretty much, and it's been a shit year for Japanese companies in general. The article cites the flooding in Taiwan, plus (was it last year?) there was that tsunami. And the rise of the value of the yen (right?) hurt them as well. I remember Nintendo reported some harsh losses mostly from the yen.

And Hirai is probably just restructuring to fit his liking. That means cutting fat where he can (yes, jobs can be considered "fat") and making the company more profitable. If that means cutting 10,000 jobs, so be it.

 

[AlanJohn]

I feel bad for the people who got fired

 

[Langin]

Right calculated a few stuffs.

People get around 14400 Euro every year.(guess, I think most people make around the 1200 Euro every month

That is a total of

144 000 000 FREAKING EUROS 0.o

I feel bad for the people who lost their job. D:

 

[Hyro-Sama]

inb4 fanboy flame war.

Is Sony that desperate for cash? They must firing people based on their future projections.

 

[freaksloan]

Hopefully they do a better job doing this than Citi Group did. I was one of 60,000+ people who were let go by Citi, and three years later Citi is still in a big financial mess.

 

[Zetta_x]

I have always wondered why people sympathize with people they don't know (or actually exist... no one has actually been mass fired yet).

Things cannot always be perfect, I don't know why we also condition ourselves to go for perfect lives when the best life lessons are learned in imperfect ones.
Not to mention, jobs are lost for a reason

 

[Janthran]

Does this have anything to do with that Apple lawsuit?

 

[FAST6191]

"14400 Euro every year"- that is a fairly bad wage for a skilled person in China (hint in your country according to a quick search the lower bracket for tax ends at €18,945) let alone Japan. Equally a simple multiple of wages is not the best thing as it can cost a company more to keep people employed (training, insurance, pensions, company cars and many more costs go into it and although wages are still probably the larger chunk they are not so large as to warrant ignoring the others for this) not to mention it is a constant cost rather than a one off/incidental one but enough playing accountant for now.

Anyhow interesting news and that is quite a large cut if it happens to be the case (usually they say something like 10000 jobs will be at risk but we are trying to shuffle things around so fewer people lose their jobs and if their PR department let a statement like that go out heads will probably be rolling before dawn) or it is a precursor to a sale/takeover (not that I am suggesting for a moment such a thing is being considered from the info I have see up to this point).

Edit
Janthran- as nasty as patent suits are and the trouble they can cause to stock prices they can drag on for years if they want to.

Edit 2
Sony not in trouble..... bad financial reports/earning projections ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/02/us-sony-earnings-idUSTRE7A10UG20111102 ) and their credit being downgraded ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/08/idUSWLA260120120208 ) are not necessarily signs of a company doing badly but it does not point to an entirely healthy company.

 

[Gahars]

Sony's new motto: Live in your world, become unemployed in ours.

Seriously though, this is certainly discouraging news. Hopefully they can get everything together before anymore jobs have to be cut.