Sony Slashes 10,000 Jobs

redletterdave writes "Sony will cut about 10,000 jobs, which equates to about six percent of its global workforce, by the end of the year. The move comes after the Tokyo-based electronics firm more than doubled its loss forecast on April 5 to $2.9 billion, and the recent hiring of a new CEO, Kazuo Hirai, on April 1. Hirai looks to downsize Sony and pivot the company in a new direction to get out of the red for the first time in four years. The company will reportedly sell off its chemical products division, cutting about 3,000 workers in the process, and also make cuts within its small and midsize LCD operations. Sony did not say if it would cut these jobs in Japan, abroad, or both."

Electronics and music hugely profitable

[CoderExpert]

Just wanted to note this before slashdotters get all jiggly about the evilness of PS3 and Sony's music divisions. They are actually Sony's most profitable divisions, and it seems like Sony wants to cut out the less profitable divisions like chemical products. PS4 is already in the production and as noted on Slashdot before, will contain even more DRM [slashdot.org]. So this is not really "news for nerds" at all, as it's completely different divisions of Sony that will get the cut.

Re:Electronics and music hugely profitable

[tripleevenfall]

but the article does mention the LCD operations shut down

No, it doesn't mention "the LCD operations shut down", but TFA mentions "mak[ing] cuts within its small and midsize LCD operations" to better compete with Samsung. So this is a reconfiguration of business designed to increase their investment and competitiveness in that market, pretty much the opposite of what you write.

Re:sony rootkit

[Anrego]

Most of their customer base never cared. Even when it was plastered on the mainstream news, the average reaction was "well, that was naughty of them".

The relatively small number of us who do care are a tiny blip on their profit statements. Yes, some of us influence big purchasing decisions at our workplaces.. but realistically it doesn't matter to them.

Remember, when the PSN got hacked.. the absolute loudest cry wasn't about personal info getting stolen, it was that the network was down and games wouldn't work. This is Sony's customer base and they know it.

Playstation and music are still very profitable sections of Sony.. and I suspect they will keep right on doing more of what they've been doing. This just sounds like them cutting out some of the less profitable chunks of their business and not Sony getting what _should_ be coming to them.

List of Sony Chemical products...

[readandburn]

http://www.sonycid.jp/en/products/ [sonycid.jp] (I'm sorry to post something informative rather than something bashing Sony and/or hilarious "jokes".)

Re:Its about profit

[Lev13than]

I wonder how many millions of dollars bonus the CEO will earn by cutting the workforce so drastically...

Executives are being asked to return their bonuses, so don't think it's a big win for him.