It's no secret that everybody thinks that Sony has been on the slide for a long time. Ever-more reliant on its games business, and struggling to make the most out of its formidable legacy, the Japanese consumer electronics giant is looking to return to form.
How? By shedding 10,000 jobs, ditching £1bn in assets and trying to claw back key markets like music and TV. This is what people have been waiting for ever since Howard Stringer took over, but not everyone thinks it's a step forward. Here's Reuters:
With a restructuring plan that underwhelmed some analysts, Sony hopes to reverse its fading fortunes and catch up with rivals such as Matsushita Electric Industrial and Sharp Corp. in flat TVs and Apple Computer and its popular iPod player in the portable music industry.
The inventor of the Trinitron TV and Walkman cassette player said it would book 210 billion yen in restructuring charges in the two business years through March 2007 as it closes plants and slashes 10,000 jobs.
"These are pretty moderate plans," Mizuho Securities analyst Koichi Hariya said. "There could have been some investors who had expected more drastic measures from the new foreign CEO."
Most people are in agreement - more drastic changes are needed. Does Sony need to shed underperforming businesses? Does it need to concentrate more closely on its core successes? Should it be thinking about why it's failed to successfully grow on its huge status?
The answer is probably all of the above - but looking at these plans (which seem like an extension of Sony's much-derided Transformation 60 restructure), I'm not sure whether Stringer is more interested in really doing something special or simply pleasing the financial markets.
