TOKYO - Sony chief executive Howard Stringer acknowledged Thursday he had not gone far enough with cost cuts and efforts to combine entertainment with electronics as his company projected its first annual loss in 14 years.
"More has to be done and more can get done," Stringer said at a hastily called news conference at Sony's Tokyo headquarters. "We have a long way to go."
Sony Corp. said it will offer early retirement to employees at its prized TV division, seeking to trim personnel costs there by 30 per cent. It is also slashing jobs at its movies, music and game businesses.
Sony did not give a head count target for the reductions. It said it is cutting 1,000 temporary workers when it closes one of two TV plants in Japan.
Stringer said he and two other top executives, including President Ryoji Chubachi, will give up their entire bonus, which would halve their annual pay, according to Sony. Other executives and managers will see lower pay.
But Koya Tabata, electronics analyst at Credit Suisse in Tokyo, was skeptical about Sony's prospects.
"There was no change to his strategy. What he said was more of the same," he said of Stringer's remarks. "And that's bad."
Last month, Sony had already said it would cut 8,000 of its 185,000 jobs around the world and shutter five or six plants -- about 10 per cent of its 57 factories. It would also trim 8,000 temporary workers who aren't included in the global work force tally.
Stringer said Sony needs carry out management decisions from the top more quickly to fix its problems.
"There is still a lot of the old Sony, and not enough of the new Sony," he said.
Battered by slumping sales and a strong yen, Sony expects to sink into a 150 billion yen (US$1.7 billion) net loss for the fiscal year through March, a reversal from 369.4 billion yen profit the previous year.
"The massive economic upheaval being experienced across the globe is sparing no one in the consumer electronics world," Stringer said, adding that details of the additional steps will be announced in April or May.
The last -- and only -- time Sony reported a loss, for the fiscal year ending March 1995, the red ink came from one-time losses in its movie division, marred by box office flops and lax cost controls.
Sony joins some of Japan Inc.'s biggest names in painting bleak outlooks. Toyota Motor Corp. is forecasting its first operating loss in 70 years -- although it says it will eke out a small net profit.
Other technology and consumer electronics giants around the world are also facing extraordinary pressure.
Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., is cutting 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, a sign of how badly even the biggest and richest companies are being stung by the recession.
The layoffs appear to be a first for Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), which was founded in 1975, aside from limited staff cuts the world's largest software provider made after acquiring companies.
Finland's Nokia Corp. (NYSE:NOK) said Thursday that its profits plunged 69 per cent in the fourth quarter. Net profit was 576 million euros (US$743.62 million), down from 1.84 billion euros a year before. Sales dropped 19.5 per cent to 12.7 billion euros (US$16.4 billion), from 15.8 billion.
Nokia, the world's biggest cellphone maker, also warned the economic downturn would batter the handset industry harder than previously thought.
South Korea's LG Electronics Inc., a major manufacturer of mobile phones and flat screen televisions, swung to its first net loss in seven quarters, hit by falling prices for TVs and a hefty price-fixing fine slapped on its affiliate LG Display.
The company painted a pessimistic outlook for 2009, saying Thursday it expects both sales and profitability to decline this year because of waning demand.
LG Electronics lost 671.3 billion won (US$487.2 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, according to a regulatory filing. It recorded a net profit of 621.3 billion won a year earlier. Quarterly sales rose 12.2 per cent to 6.59 trillion won from 5.87 trillion won.
