Yuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer
Sony is slashing 8,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its global work force, aiming to
cut costs by $1.1 billion a year as a global downturn and stronger yen batters
profits at the Japanese electronics maker.
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
SNE 20.04 0.00
{"s" : "sne","k" : "c10,l10,p20,t10","o" : "","j" : ""}
Sony Corp., which has 185,000 employees worldwide, said Tuesday it will
complete the layoffs by the end of March 2010.
The company will close several plants, including one in France, cut investment
in electronics and outsource some work. The moves will deliver more than 100
billion yen ($1.1 billion) in savings a year by March 2010, the company said.
The global financial crisis is hitting the U.S., European, Japanese and
emerging nations' economies, said Senior Vice President Naofumi Hara.
"Now we are all facing a recession together. It is impossible to predict how
much longer the situation will last," Hara said at a briefing.
Sony's announcement comes amid similar news from other Japanese manufacturers,
which face plunging demand at home and abroad, as well as falling gadget prices
and currency fluctuations.
Sony -- maker of the Walkman portable player and PlayStation 3 game console --
is particularly vulnerable to the strong yen since about 80 percent of its
sales come from overseas. The dollar has dropped to about 93 yen from 117 yen
last year, eroding with it Sony's foreign income.
Hara said the ways the job cuts will be carried out will vary by country, but
he did not give a country breakdown. The layoffs will come from Sony's
electronics business, which has 160,000 workers. The company also has movie,
video game and financial businesses.
Sony has lowered production and lowered inventories, but tough times demand
more drastic efforts, it said in a statement.
The cost-cutting plan includes postponing an investment to boost production of
liquid crystal display TVs in Slovakia because of a plunge in European demand
for flat-panel TVs.
"These initiatives are in response to the sudden and rapid changes in the
global economic environment," Sony said.
Sony will end production at some plants, including one in France that makes
tape and other recording media and will continue moving electronics production
to lower-cost countries. Manufacturing sites will be reduced by about 10
percent from 57 today.
Sony will also trim spending in semiconductors, and will outsource a portion of
the production it had planned for image sensors for mobile phones.
The cost of the job cuts and plant shutdowns will be disclosed next year when
the company updates its forecast for the fiscal year, the company said.
Hara said Sony will reduce investment in electronics by 30 percent for the
following fiscal year ending March 2010. But he said specific numbers and
details are undecided.
Apart from the 8,000 electronics job losses, Hara said Sony would cut at least
8,000 temporary jobs by the end of March, 2010. He said temporary workers are
not part of Sony's global work force.
Sony recently slashed its full-year earnings projection, citing weaker consumer
demand and a stronger yen. For the fiscal year through March 2009, it is
expecting a 150 billion yen ($1.5 billion) profit, down 59 percent from the
previous year.
Hara said it was unclear whether a further revision will be needed for the
current fiscal year.
Sony's July-September profit plunged 72 percent from a year earlier to 20.8
billion ($224 million).
The announcement came shortly after trading ended in Tokyo, where Sony shares
rose 3.9 percent to 1,896 yen ($20).
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Sony-slashing-8000-jobs-amid-apf-13779981.html
Time will explain it all. He is a talker, and needs no questioning before he
speaks.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Kences1" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/kences1?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
image;size=179x98
Description: Binary data
