Sony Facing Corporate Upheaval?
See Full ImageAccording to the UK's TimesOnline, Sony company sources have said to expect a series of "sacred cow-slaying" procedures that will be radical enough to "abolish or fundamentally alter many of Sony's long-established business practices."
This restructuring is expected to be announced after the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and not a moment too soon as far as most analysts and investors are concerned. The majority of these major changes will be "imposed on Sony's domestic Japanese operations in the form of factory closures and the abolition of several major divisions," and investors have asked president Sir Howard Stringer to really take charge. A Credit Suisse analyst, Koya Tabata, recently said that the focus of the company's research and development must be on software, and the important thing is to "improve organizational strength in the areas of development [and] purchasing and marketing." Evidently, a lot of the problem centers on an internal clash between the Japanese branch of Sony and its U.S. and European divisions, perhaps fueled by their non-Japanese president in Stringer. Sometimes, massively large companies like Sony really need to get back on the same page, and if that means laying waste to certain aspects of your business, than so be it.
Sony, on the other hand, has denied that any such drastic changes will be taking place. They told Reuters they have "no such plans," so perhaps all of this is just more so-called journalistic hearsay. But either way, they do need to resolve a few things and it'll be interesting to see what happens. By the way, in case you're wondering: no, the PS3 and PSP isn't going to be canceled; they're not shutting down PlayStation. That's the kind of bizarre, illogical reaction you might see online, but people with brains won't really pay any attention.
1/5/2009 Ben Dutka
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Comments (45 posts)
WaR_HaWk
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:20:41 AM
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ZubraZap
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:22:29 AM
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xtreme
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:26:58 AM
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I semi-disagree, walkmans that are built into the sony erricson mobiles should stay 100% but any standalone walkmans players should go. Apple firmly has that market now.
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Phoelix
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:31:53 AM
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Troy Powers
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 2:47:54 PM
That's crazy. Just make better walkmen (walkmans?). I personally can't stand iPods because they're so proprietary. I've had 3 different mp3 players: 2 Cowons, 1 Iriver, and they've all been much better than any of the iPods.
Just make a better product.
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robinhood2010
Tuesday, January 06, 2009 @ 4:49:17 PM
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ec0li
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:53:46 AM
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You know what...forget what I said. Nintendo is actually laughing all the way to the bank.
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Phoelix
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 12:08:37 PM
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I hope.
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VinTheDean
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 12:30:04 PM
Or they could realease the PS4 and the offer an official trade in value for like Half of or something like that.
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ec0li
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 12:47:46 PM
Can you let me have some of what you're smoking? I don't wanna sound like an ass but damn, where the hell did you come up with a solution like that? You were just kidding right? Ofcourse you were. You're just effin around and purposely having fun with your crazy-talk. At least I hope you were.
Last edited by ec0li on 1/5/2009 12:48:45 PM
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Deleted User
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 2:46:15 PM
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Phoelix
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 2:56:58 PM
Sony has it the other way around. They've kept their focus on a quality product (blu-ray, the cell, etc.), but they've sacrificed some sell-ability because consumers either a) don't know about the PS3 or b) don't have enough money for one.
If Sony gets the best of both worlds by aggressively marketing a superior product, they won't be copying Microsoft; they'll be beating them at their own game.
Last edited by Phoelix on 1/5/2009 2:58:13 PM
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Advent Child
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 10:57:04 PM
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Nynja
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 12:56:28 PM
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- Palm PDA/OS
- Sony Batteries
- memory sticks
- Stand-alone DVD players
- Stand-alone Bluray players
- Desktop/Laptops (?)
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ceedot
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 7:47:58 PM
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Soral
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:20:26 PM
Even though I think it is kind of ridiculous to think that major department in the company should close(Unless it obviously is a big lose and doesn't even cover the average variable costs.) Here is a respond to that:
- Palm PDA/OS: They aren't that popular to even give enough info. about it, so if anything would go, it would be this.
- Sony Batteries: No. Sony is a very major maker in this area. Many Laptop makers(Apple, Dell, HP, and Toshiba, mainly) use Sony's batteries.
- memory sticks: No. It lets them avoid having to license SD(or any other type) from other major competitions in this area, which means saving hundred of millions annually. (Example: Samsung was trying to buy San Disk because it will make them save so much money from doing so.)
- Stand-alone DVD players: Doesn't seem as a major big deal here, especially that every PS2 and PS3 that gets sold is a DVD player at the same time. (Although, that would also mean that they are better off without the Stand-alone DVD players.)
- Stand-alone Bluray players: No, they became cheaper than the current PS3 price tag now, and not everyone wants to buy a PS3 to play Blu-ray movies.
- Desktop/Laptops (?): No on laptops. Their Vaio division is making good profits and is a major designer for a lot of their products. As for Desktops, I'd say the same about them as the PDA's.
@ceedot: Sony Ericsson just became the third largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, right after Nokia and Samsung, so..no. Not sure about the 4th quarter of 2008 though, since that happened in the 3rd quarter.
Last edited by Soral on 1/5/2009 11:21:07 PM
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noshownogo
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 1:18:32 PM
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How about dropping:
Cameras
Laptops/Desktops
Cell phone partnership with Ericsson
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caliblue15
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 2:15:20 PM
The would delete the following:
Walkman
Laptops/Desktops
DVD Players
but everything else is way too entwined.
Though they could scale back their TV's, and other parts.
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CH1N00K
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 2:18:58 PM
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HUSO
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 6:28:24 PM
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MetalHead09
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 2:39:57 PM
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WorldEndsWithMe
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 2:41:17 PM
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Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 1/5/2009 2:42:17 PM
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karneli lll
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 5:38:27 PM
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HUSO
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 6:31:43 PM
Last edited by HUSO on 1/5/2009 6:32:49 PM
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ps92117
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 8:24:12 PM
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QuasarSquirrel
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 8:50:40 PM
Last edited by QuasarSquirrel on 1/5/2009 8:51:51 PM
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Troy Powers
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 4:01:03 PM
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Phoelix
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 4:15:46 PM
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HUSO
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 6:35:22 PM
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FLYING_APE
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 7:35:49 PM
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Deleted User
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 9:06:48 PM
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I'll not pretend to have wisdom I don't. Will just have to wait and see what happens.
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blitz30952
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 10:34:14 PM
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Qubex
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:19:38 PM
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Q!
"i aM hOMe"
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Wage SLAVES
Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:30:37 PM
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Deleted User
Thursday, January 08, 2009 @ 3:24:15 AM
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This will hurt Sony's ability to price cut the PS3, since current data points that they are still losing money on each ps3 sold. If that is true, and games are not selling near as well as sony thinks or needs them to, Sony is in a bad place - games are selling better on the 360 due to market share, and percieved advantages, while ont he PS3, games are selling much worst (looking at teh attach rates shows that).
In the end, Sony will have to pump more ps3's into the market, and the only way to get demand going stronger, after that awful november, might be lowering the price drasticlly. They might need to start cutting out even more functions form the ps3 - remove the wifi, remove card reasers (if they are still there) and so on.
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Buckeyestar
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Monday, January 05, 2009 @ 11:04:31 AM