Kaz Hirai - New President of Sony Corp

[Bloodwake]

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp named Vice President Kazuo Hirai as president and CEO, replacing Howard Stringer who will step down from day-to-day management in a long-expected change for a company struggling to regain its driving force in consumer electronics.

Stringer will remain chairman of the company until June, when he will become chairman of the board of directors, a separate post that will not be directly involved in company management, Sony spokeswoman Mami Imada said. The are no plans to replace him in the chairman's role, she added.

Sony announced the changes ahead of its earnings report on Thursday, which is expected to forecast the company will post a net loss for the fourth year in a row as its TV division bleeds red ink. Hirai will take over on April 1.

The last year has been brutal for many Japanese companies, hit by a strong yen that hurt exports, and two natural disasters -- the March earthquake in Japan and record floods in Thailand.

But Sony has also come under fire for losing the innovative edge behind products like the Walkman and the Playstation, and ceding ground to rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics as consumers snapped up their iPhones, iPods and Galaxy gadgets.

The urbane and English-speaking Hirai, 51, will have to plot a course to revitalize the electronics giant as consumers lose interest in its products and gravitate instead towards smartphones and tablet PCs from other brand names.

Sony's shares have lost nearly two-thirds of their value since Welsh-born Stringer, who turns 70 later this month, took the helm as CEO in 2005.

In contrast, Apple shares have galloped ahead more than 1,000 percent, while Samsung, a maker of smartphones, flat panels and computer chips, is up more than 100 percent over the same period.

ANOINTED SUCCESSOR

Hirai was effectively anointed as Stringer's successor last March when he was promoted to head Sony's consumer products and services businesses, which produce the bulk of Sony's $85 billion in annual sales.

He made his name in the PlayStation video games division, once a key profit driver for Sony that fell into the red for four consecutive years until he took the reins and pulled it back into the black two years ago.

"The path we must take is clear," he said in a statement on Wednesday.

"To drive the growth of our core electronics businesses -- primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and games; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains."

Stringer, a former journalist who later ran U.S. broadcaster CBS, was brought in as a rare foreign CEO at a top Japanese company to shake things up and restore its innovative edge in consumer electronics. Many analysts though see his major achievement as cost cutting.

Stringer's restructuring efforts included selling off TV factories in Spain, Slovakia and Mexico and outsourcing more than half of its production to other companies, including Hon Hai Precision Industry, the contract electronics maker that also counts Apple as its key customer.

In recent months, Sony exited an LCD panel joint venture with Samsung, which will allow it to procure screens for its TVs more cheaply.

It also agreed to buy out Ericsson's half of their smartphone venture for $1.5 billion to shore up its position in a market where Apple and Samsung have become leaders.

Sony's share of the flat-panel television market has been eroded by the rise of Samsung and a host of nimbler Asian players, while a hacking scandal last year undermined confidence in its management.

Many of Japan's other electronics titans have also stumbled in recent years. In the current reporting season, Nintendo and Sharp Corp both issued bigger-than-expected loss projections for the full year.

South Korean rivals such as Samsung have been particularly aggressive in investment and blessed with favorable currency movements, while Apple has stolen much of the innovative thunder that once emanated from Japan.

Sony reports third-quarter earnings on Thursday, when it is also due to brief the media on the management reshuffle.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S gave a consensus forecast of just 8.8 billion yen ($115.41 million) in operating profit for the key October-December quarter, when consumers spend heavily on gadgets for year-end gift-giving, and 8.2 billion yen for the full financial year to March.

($1=76.25 yen)

(Additional reporting by Reiji Murai, Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Ed Klamann and Neil Fullick)

Grats to him I guess.

[Sho Nuff]

Good luck with that

[Joe Molotov]

His salary is $599 US dollars/month.

[Dickie Dee]

His salary is $599 US dollars/month.

Well then he'll just get a second job.

[pilonv1]

His salary is $599 US dollars/month.

Well then he'll just get a second job.

perfect

[Sho Nuff]

His salary is $599 US dollars/month.

Well then he'll just get a second job.

perfect

Close the forum, we're done here

[Momo]

nobody can turn Sony around.

All that goodwill they had is lost on just about everyone except my dad.

Not really. You just need someone in charge willing to cut the fat and introduce some company synergy.

[cool breeze]

my Kaz Hirai rookie card shot up in worth

[Stoney Mason]

Kaz already made his introduction speech to the company.

[AdmiralViscen]

nobody can turn Sony around.

All that goodwill they had is lost on just about everyone except my dad.

Not really. You just need someone in charge willing to cut the fat and introduce some company synergy.

XMB on all smartphones

[Sho Nuff]

Seriously tho--I have no idea how one would go about attempting to save Sony--perhaps a Japanese CEO would have an easier time

[Bebpo]

Err, it's not that hard.

-drop the TV business ENTIRELY.  Don't even R&D new tech to sell to other companies.

-Keep Sony pictures
-Keep Sony gaming
-Keep Sony music (software, not hardware)
-Keep Insurance Provider

-drop EVERYTHING else.  No phones, no mp3 players, no cameras, no sex robots, NOTHING. 


They need to just be a media company + insurance provider.  Their media divisions are profitable in general and they're well known names there.  It's all the hard tech R&D and hardware where they have faded into irrelevance and take huge losses.  Though it's mainly the TV business that is sinking them year after year.

[Bebpo]

Also I'd pump more money into Sony gaming SOFTWARE; aka SCEJ and SCEE so that they can hire more staff and make more games for their systems.

But that's just me as a gamer, and it's not a great business decision since their 1st party stuff doesn't sell much at all.

[Himu]

No phones is a dumb idea, bebpo. Every company has a phone line.

[Bebpo]

I was under the impression their tvs are expensive, because like the PS3, Sony is not good at building things efficiently. 

The real problem with Sony TVs is that they aren't top tier in quality like Panasonic or Samsung's Plasmas and they are entry level cheap shitty ones like LG.  They are in a middle spot of average quality at middle-tier pricing and there's no market for that anymore.  You either spend $$$ for a top-tier quality tv, or just get whatever is entry level cheap.

No phones is a dumb idea, bebpo. Every company has a phone line.

What's the point, everyone just buys an iphone.

[Himu]

I know just as many people with android based phones than I do people with iphones, probably more. Not everyone lives in upper class LA.

[Bebpo]

Are Sony's phones android based?

[Himu]

I dunno. That's the point. They should concentrate on building up a better line of phone products. The Erricson used to be one of my favorite phones in the pre-smartphone age.

People are going nuts over Samsung Galaxy's. Sony should get in that.

In many ways, Samsung IS the new Sony.

[Great Rumbler]

Here's the smartphone numbers, so that we don't have to bring in anecdotes:

http://www.webpronews.com/android-iphone-gain-market-share-2012-02

[Bebpo]

Is the advantage of not-iphones that they are cheaper?

Where I roll, I don't know anyone who has a phone that's not an iphone.  It's just standard around these parts.  I couldn't imagine having a phone that didn't have access to the iOS store since all the major publishers like Square Enix, Capcom, CAVE, etc... put their games.  Isn't the app stores for non-iOS just a bunch of indie homebrew games?

I'm not disagreeing that Android market is huge.  I'm just saying I've never seen anyone with an Android and literally know nothing about them.  Over here the word phone = iphone.

[Himu]

Yes, android phones are cheaper and have just as much functionality.

But like I said, if everyone you know has an iphone, you're probably in upper class land, which will skew your perspective.

[The Sceneman]

killah kaz

[Himu]

Dropping cameras and phones would be fucking dumb.

Sony should focus on pricing their stuff within reality. Their TVs shouldn't cost as much as they do.

I'm not sure the argument extends towards cameras. Camera business has been seen few in-roads in past years because everyone and their mother has a point and shoot cam or a cell phone with a moderately decent lens. Back in the day when we all had disposables, the camera business was under constant business and boomed. But if everyone has a point and shoot, the camera biz loses customers, and this makes hobbyists only have an interest in buying the more expensive cameras and accessories. Even Kodak is struggling with the camera business.

I think Sony should axe their cam biz or make some innovations in that area. If they don't? kill it. I've never met anyone with a Sony camera anyways since the end of the vhs recorder days. MAYBE a few video cams but that's the extent of it.

Businesses Sony should keep:

laptops and computers
tablets
cell phones (make a successful android-based phone and make your name relevant again, make the cellphone the new walkman for buyers)
games
Sony Music
Sony Movies

That's about it.

[Himu]

Ah, yeah.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Uh, I'm pretty sure everyone these days has a Windows phone. The passengers of bus 545 into Redmond ARE representative of the general population, right?

[patrickula]

Android is pretty popular in the DC area though I probably do know more iPhone users (they have do have some pretty powerful marketing and a big early marketshare advantage). I'm on my second Android phone and bought an iPad 2 between the two.  Having used iOS a bit, if found it really irritates me (as suspected) so I decided to stick with Android and go for the Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich, which is quite nice. I wish Google could push the newest version out faster.

The skinning that the phone makers do is really the big impediment to me. They really jank it up though sometimes important holes do get filled where Google has left features out (such as deep Facebook integration).

[Sho Nuff]

Uh, I'm pretty sure everyone these days has a Windows phone. The passengers of bus 545 into Redmond ARE representative of the general population, right?

Tee hee, I take the 544 into Seattle daily, and all I ever see are 2nd and 3rd gen Kindles and Androids.