Tokyo –
is planning to
reduce its workforce by 6 percent, or about 10,000 jobs, as new CEO Kazuo Hirai
takes action in the wake of the company’s fourth straight projected loss,
according to a Nikkei news report.
About 5,000 of the job cuts are expected to come from a
reorganization of operations producing chemicals and small- and medium-sized
panels, according to the report.
Hirai had previously stated that “painful” steps would be
necessary to turn the company around.
Hirai is scheduled to hold a press conference on the management
plan, April 12.
Valued at $200 billion as recently as September 2000, Sony is now
estimated to be worth just $20 billion, compared with $591 billion for Apple
and $170 billion of Samsung, according to Bloomberg.
In February, Sony predicted a loss of $2.7 billion for the fiscal
year ending March 31. A fourth consecutive annual loss would be a first for the
company since it listed in 1958.
Hirai,
who has put himself in direct charge of the company’s flagging TV business,
divested much of its holdings in an LCD panel plant co-owned by Samsung as a
cost-saving measure.
