TOKYO: The incoming chief of Japan's Sony Corp will face the enormity of his task to turn around the electronics icon on Thursday when the firm is likely to forecast a fourth straight annual loss as it loses ground to rivals Apple and Samsung.
Kazuo Hirai, the Sony veteran who revived its PlayStation gaming business, was named on Wednesday as the company's new chief executive. He will replace Howard Stringer on April 1.
Sony shares were down 0.4 percent on Thursday in a market that was up 0.7 percent, with investors awaiting the company's earnings due around 0600 GMT.
Sony is expected to have barely broken even at an operating level for its normally lucrative October-December quarter, as it heads for a net loss of 132.8 billion yen ($1.7 billion) for the full year to March, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data shows.
There is unlikely to be a honeymoon period for Hirai, who is under immediate pressure to sort out Sony's ailing TV business after it fell behind South Korean rivals such as Samsung Electronics in a market where prices are tumbling.
The TV business is expected to make a loss for its eighth straight year in 2011/12.
Above all, Hirai will be leading a drive at Sony, whose products range from PlayStation games consoles to "The Smurfs" movie, to recapture the innovative flair that made it king of global consumer electronics three decades ago.
In the 1980s, Sony dreamt up the Walkman personal music-player and then in the 1990s the hugely successful PlayStation, but it has since ceded ground to Apple Inc and Samsung as consumers snap up their iPhones, iPods and Galaxy gadgets.
There are some doubts that 51-year-old Hirai - tall, urbane and a fluent English speaker - can rekindle innovation at Sony.
"The biggest issue is top management ... There needs to be a vision for the products, for innovation," said a former Sony executive who felt that a new management mindset was needed.
He told Reuters he believed Sony would ultimately shut the TV business unless it came up with fresh ideas to revive it. "There is still a chance in home electronics, but I imagine the day may come when they will pull the plug on TVs," he said.
Hirai, who made his name hauling the wayward PlayStation division back into the black two years ago, sketched out his priorities in a statement on Wednesday night.
"The path we must take is clear," he said. "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."
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/new-sony-ceo-kazuo-hirai-to-confront-scale-of-turnaround-task-as-loss-looms/articleshow/11724063.cms
Kazuo Hirai, the Sony veteran who revived its PlayStation gaming business, was named on Wednesday as the company's new chief executive. He will replace Howard Stringer on April 1.
Sony shares were down 0.4 percent on Thursday in a market that was up 0.7 percent, with investors awaiting the company's earnings due around 0600 GMT.
Sony is expected to have barely broken even at an operating level for its normally lucrative October-December quarter, as it heads for a net loss of 132.8 billion yen ($1.7 billion) for the full year to March, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data shows.
There is unlikely to be a honeymoon period for Hirai, who is under immediate pressure to sort out Sony's ailing TV business after it fell behind South Korean rivals such as Samsung Electronics in a market where prices are tumbling.
The TV business is expected to make a loss for its eighth straight year in 2011/12.
Above all, Hirai will be leading a drive at Sony, whose products range from PlayStation games consoles to "The Smurfs" movie, to recapture the innovative flair that made it king of global consumer electronics three decades ago.
In the 1980s, Sony dreamt up the Walkman personal music-player and then in the 1990s the hugely successful PlayStation, but it has since ceded ground to Apple Inc and Samsung as consumers snap up their iPhones, iPods and Galaxy gadgets.
There are some doubts that 51-year-old Hirai - tall, urbane and a fluent English speaker - can rekindle innovation at Sony.
"The biggest issue is top management ... There needs to be a vision for the products, for innovation," said a former Sony executive who felt that a new management mindset was needed.
He told Reuters he believed Sony would ultimately shut the TV business unless it came up with fresh ideas to revive it. "There is still a chance in home electronics, but I imagine the day may come when they will pull the plug on TVs," he said.
Hirai, who made his name hauling the wayward PlayStation division back into the black two years ago, sketched out his priorities in a statement on Wednesday night.
"The path we must take is clear," he said. "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."
Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/new-sony-ceo-kazuo-hirai-to-confront-scale-of-turnaround-task-as-loss-looms/articleshow/11724063.cms
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