Ailing giant Sony to axe 10,000 jobs worldwide after four years in the red



Japanese technology giant Sony is axing 10,000 jobs or around six per cent of its global workforce, it was revealed today.

It follows the appointment of new CEO Kazuo Hirai, who has been put under pressure to return the company to profit after four years in the red.

Sony is the latest in a series of Japanese technology firms to downsize. NEC and Sumco have already announced they are trimming costs to revamp their businesses.

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Sony's outgoing president and CEO Howard Stringer (right) and his successor Kazuo Hirai share a smile. Mr Hirai is making cuts after being put under pressure to return the company to profit

Sony itself announced in December 2008 cuts of 16,000 workers after the global financial crisis hit demand for its electronics products, but it has not managed to make a profit since then.



As of end-March 2011, Sony had 168,200 employees on a consolidated basis, according to its website.



The company, which expects a 220billion yen ($2.7billion) net loss for the fiscal year just ended, said last month that Mr Hirai would be put in charge of Sony's ailing TV business in a reorganisation of the company's business structure.

Mr Hirai, who formally took over as chief executive from Howard Stringer on April 1, is set to brief on the company's business plan on Thursday.

It was reported that half of the latest round of job cuts would come from consolidating the firm's chemicals and small and midsize LCD operations.



Sony said last month it would sell part of a chemicals and devices subsidiary that makes films and adhesives used in televisions, cameras and mobile phones to the state-backed Development Bank of Japan.

High price: A Sony factory submerged by floodwaters near Bangkok. The company has blamed the disaster for hitting its profits

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Last year, it merged its small LCD panel business with those of Toshiba and Hitachi into a new firm called Japan Display.



It has not been revealed how many of the cuts will take place in Japan or overseas.



Sony shares closed up 0.6 per cent, while the benchmark Nikkei average ended 1.5 per cent lower.

In February the company blamed the devastating floods which hit Thailand last year for the more than doubling of its forecasted losses.

Thailand, where Sony produces much of its goods, was hit by its worst floods in 50 years in October 2011.

Severe monsoon rains left the country submerged, killing more than 600 people, and forced many manufacturers to stop production.

Sony was a leading player in the electronics market in previous decades with the Walkman personal music-player in the 1980s and the PlayStation games console in the 1990s.