(Source: alarabiya.net)
As part of its restructuring plan, Sony is closing a factory in Japan and will also cut thousands of jobs at its Tokyo headquarters.
According to Sony, it will shut down its Minokamo factory in Japan, which makes camera and mobile phone lenses. The factory contains about 840 workers that will lose their jobs at the end of March 2013.
In addition, Sony said it will invest in an early retirement plan that will reduce the employee headcount at its Tokyo headquarters by 2,000 -- or one-fifth of the HQ's workforce. This will happen by the end of fiscal year 2012.
Sony is closing factories and cutting jobs as part of its latest restructuring plan, which was announced by new CEO Kazuo Hirai back in April. The idea is to try to keep Sony afloat and competitive in the electronics market by axing about 10,000 jobs globally by March 2013. About 3,000-4,000 will be in Japan.
This restructuring will cost Sony $930 million during the fiscal year, but the outcome is expected to save the company $370 million annually.
When Hirai took over the sinking ship that is Sony back on April 1, he offered an entirely new plan for restructuring the company. A key idea behind the restructuring was to strengthen core businesses, including digital imaging, games and mobile. He also opted to take over the failing TV business, expand business in emerging markets, create new businesses and realign the business portfolio.
A lot of Sony's issues have to do with its TV unit, which has seen eight straight years of quarterly losses. Last December, Sony decided to shake up its TV division by negotiating a buyout of its 50 percent manufacturing stake with Samsung in the LCD joint venture. It also split its TV division into three units consisting of sales of LCD TVs, outsourcing manufacturing to cheaper foreign facilities and developing future TVs.
More recently, in May 2012, Sony reported a record annual loss of $5.7 billion USD.
Source: Sony
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