It is not known whether Sony Australia executives are among Sony staff who have been forced to give up an estimated $10M in bonuses after the Company failed to hit profit targets.
What we do know is that 40 executives will face pay cuts of up to 40% in bonuses among them is new chief executive Kazuo Hirai.
In the latest of a series of drastic cost cutting, Sony recently cut 10,000 jobs, about 6% of its workforce – and halved TV production targets
. It also sold off the group’s headquarters in New York for more than $1bn and its Sony City Osaki premises in Tokyo.
The Guardian newspaper said that the salary reductions are an embarrassment for Hirai, who last year promised to bring the firm’s electronics division back into profit.
Despite his efforts Sony is still struggling with LG revealing yesterday that they have taken TV market share away in Australia from both Sony and Panasonic.
The consumer electronics division is still in the red amid slumping sales of its PCs, games consoles, and flat-screen TVs. Faced with increasing competition from rivals in South Korea and Taiwan, Sony’s TV sales failed to turn a profit last year for a ninth consecutive year.
Sony said it expects to show a net profit of ?40bn for 2012, its first profit for five years and double its February forecast. The group’s performance has improved in recent months amid a sharp fall in the value of the yen and a rise in the Japanese stock market.
