“Ailing Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp warned it was heading for a bigger-than-expected $2.9 billion annual loss, presenting a daunting task for incoming CEO Kazoo Hiram, who vowed to move quickly to turn things around,” Nathan Layne and Yoko Kubota report for Reuters.
“Overtaken by more innovative rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics over the past decade, Sony posted a $2.1 billion net loss for October-December, normally a strong quarter boosted by year-end holiday sales, as it battled a strong yen, flooding in Thailand that ruptured supply chains, and a weak economy,” Layne and Kubota report.
MacDailyNews Take: Samsung is the opposite of innovative and Layne and Kubota only make themselves look ignorant trying to lump the excurciatingly derivative Samsung into the same league as Apple – the very company Samsung so slavishly copies, no less.
Layne and Kubota report, “The forecast for a 220 billion yen ($2.9 billion) net loss for the year to March, Sony’s fourth straight year of red ink, was close to double what the market expected, and revealed the task ahead for Hiram, who replaces Howard Stringer as CEO in April. Hiram, a 51-year old Sony veteran known for reviving the PlayStation gaming operations through aggressive cost-cutting, said he would not hesitate to scale back or withdraw from businesses if they were not competitive.”
Layne and Kubota report, “‘It won’t be easy for Sony to regain its lost ground under new leadership, as its overall competitiveness has sharply weakened,’ said Kim Young-Chan, analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp in Seoul. ‘It’s got structural problems that will take years to fix.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Hiram does turn Sony around, he’ll be known forever as The Great Kazoo.