Sony Expected To Slash 10,000 Jobs

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According to a new report, Sony is expected to cut 10,000 jobs by the end of the year. The only good news, if you can even call it that, it that Sony will also be asking its top executives to forfeit their bonuses as well.

The Japanese business newspaper also reports (subscription required) that seven executives -- including chairman and former CEO Howard Stringer -- may be asked to forfeit their bonuses. The report comes on the heels of the electronics and software giant recording a loss of 260 billion yen ($3.2 billion) for the 2011 fiscal year.
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Not surprised, really.
I think this is all part of Kaz Hirai's plan to greatly reduce the scope of the business to their most profitable sectors, streamline their organization.
Anyone looking at the huge breadth of products Sony offers can tell you their business model was bloated and costing them tons of money.
 
I simply avoid sony products on principal. Between the way they behave to how crappy their products have become. I simply avoid giving them any of my money.
 
wtiger said:
I simply avoid sony products on principal. Between the way they behave to how crappy their products have become. I simply avoid giving them any of my money.
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Agree whole heartedly. Their entire business model focuses on making sure the customer is "trapped" into their realm of ridiculous proprietary products which don't offer any benefits over their counterparts and can even lack proper support (UMD, Pro Duo, Blu-Ray, etc...). One of the worst companies in my opinion.
 
Does that leave the network security staff for PSN at two people then?
 
CapnCrunch10 said:
Agree whole heartedly. Their entire business model focuses on making sure the customer is "trapped" into their realm of ridiculous proprietary products which don't offer any benefits over their counterparts and can even lack proper support (UMD, Pro Duo, Blu-Ray, etc...). One of the worst companies in my opinion.
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hmm.. I can think of another still-successful a-hole company that can outgun Sony at it ...
 
wtiger said:
I simply avoid sony products on principal. Between the way they behave to how crappy their products have become. I simply avoid giving them any of my money.
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Agreed. Nearly all of their devices are outdated compared to competitors. I was specifically looking at their specs on TVs and AV receivers and for a lot less you can receive a lot more from one of their competitors.
 
Sony killed themselves by marking up premium prices on sub par products. A text book example is the television market with their XBR models, which contributed to Sony selling its half stake in TV joint venture to Samsung.

I've seen Vizio models outperform Sony's XBR series in terms of both price and quality. With the global economy the way it is today, the age of premium outrageous prices are over, most tech companies are either in denial or simply in fear, and their only response are constant layoffs and streamlining their products. Sony spread themselves too thin by tapping into too many markets. Without the Playstation 3 around, I'm curious to see how bad their profit margins would be.
 
Their entire business model focuses on making sure the customer is "trapped" into their realm of ridiculous proprietary products which don't offer any benefits over their counterparts and can even lack proper support (UMD, Pro Duo, Blu-Ray, etc...). One of the worst companies in my opinion.[/QUOTE]

UMD was made for the PSP probably because flash media was too expensive, and it's too small for even mini DVD. Same way nintendo makes custom flash modules for the whatever.

Pro duo is just like P2. Lots of companies will have their own media format due to the huge amount of junky cheap flash medias availible. If you have an SD slot, you can stick whatever knockoff card into it and it can hamper the performance making the product seem shitty or worse. The propriety media idsupposedly keeps the quality level up as it locks out lots of the junk (a MS pro duo is compatible with miniSD with a simple adapter). But then again most sony products have SD/XD/other slots too (the cameras do, the PS3 did, the laptops do) so that wouldn't really support the "trapping" idea.

Blu ray is proprietary? Which counterpart doesn't it give benefits over? It has better picture/sound quality than the alternatives (streaming) and that studios set prices? You do know that's not even soley their product, right? It's also the first time in a media war that the higher quality media has won. So that makes it pretty historic. :p

The ones you missed (betamax) were higher quality video, which was adapted from proffesional video types (and still used in professional applications). Then minidisc, which was made for a transition period (people wanted recordable CDs).

Then SACD. Which was a real step forward in terms of CD audio. But mp3 became popular and etc.

Then theres all the crap you don't hear about. Like fluid bearing fans and all the other little technologies that go into lots of your favirote products. I don't really own any sony products outside of a console or three, but I can at least appreciate what they do to technology in general. They are much better than other much less, progressive companies.
 
DeathPrincess said:
Their entire business model focuses on making sure the customer is "trapped" into their realm of ridiculous proprietary products which don't offer any benefits over their counterparts and can even lack proper support (UMD, Pro Duo, Blu-Ray, etc...). One of the worst companies in my opinion.
Click to expand...

UMD was made for the PSP probably because flash media was too expensive, and it's too small for even mini DVD. Same way nintendo makes custom flash modules for the whatever.

Pro duo is just like P2. Lots of companies will have their own media format due to the huge amount of junky cheap flash medias availible. If you have an SD slot, you can stick whatever knockoff card into it and it can hamper the performance making the product seem shitty or worse. The propriety media idsupposedly keeps the quality level up as it locks out lots of the junk (a MS pro duo is compatible with miniSD with a simple adapter). But then again most sony products have SD/XD/other slots too (the cameras do, the PS3 did, the laptops do) so that wouldn't really support the "trapping" idea.

Blu ray is proprietary? Which counterpart doesn't it give benefits over? It has better picture/sound quality than the alternatives (streaming) and that studios set prices? You do know that's not even soley their product, right? It's also the first time in a media war that the higher quality media has won. So that makes it pretty historic. :p

The ones you missed (betamax) were higher quality video, which was adapted from proffesional video types (and still used in professional applications). Then minidisc, which was made for a transition period (people wanted recordable CDs).

Then SACD. Which was a real step forward in terms of CD audio. But mp3 became popular and etc.

Then theres all the crap you don't hear about. Like fluid bearing fans and all the other little technologies that go into lots of your favirote products. I don't really own any sony products outside of a console or three, but I can at least appreciate what they do to technology in general. They are much better than other much less, progressive companies.[/QUOTE]

The point is they have a long long history of selling products that can only use proprietary accessories or connectors. From shitty expensive flash card to proprietary chargers that have encryption sony has been continuously producing over priced crap with proprietary components. This and the fact that they almost fit the definition of a cookie cutter evil corporation from a video game (Umbrella Corporation?) doesn't help their image. Also all the security breaches and suing people didn't help either.
 
osrk said:
UMD was made for the PSP probably because flash media was too expensive, and it's too small for even mini DVD. Same way nintendo makes custom flash modules for the whatever.

Pro duo is just like P2. Lots of companies will have their own media format due to the huge amount of junky cheap flash medias availible. If you have an SD slot, you can stick whatever knockoff card into it and it can hamper the performance making the product seem shitty or worse. The propriety media idsupposedly keeps the quality level up as it locks out lots of the junk (a MS pro duo is compatible with miniSD with a simple adapter). But then again most sony products have SD/XD/other slots too (the cameras do, the PS3 did, the laptops do) so that wouldn't really support the "trapping" idea.

Blu ray is proprietary? Which counterpart doesn't it give benefits over? It has better picture/sound quality than the alternatives (streaming) and that studios set prices? You do know that's not even soley their product, right? It's also the first time in a media war that the higher quality media has won. So that makes it pretty historic. :p

The ones you missed (betamax) were higher quality video, which was adapted from proffesional video types (and still used in professional applications). Then minidisc, which was made for a transition period (people wanted recordable CDs).

Then SACD. Which was a real step forward in terms of CD audio. But mp3 became popular and etc.

Then theres all the crap you don't hear about. Like fluid bearing fans and all the other little technologies that go into lots of your favirote products. I don't really own any sony products outside of a console or three, but I can at least appreciate what they do to technology in general. They are much better than other much less, progressive companies.
Click to expand...

The point is they have a long long history of selling products that can only use proprietary accessories or connectors. From shitty expensive flash card to proprietary chargers that have encryption sony has been continuously producing over priced crap with proprietary components. This and the fact that they almost fit the definition of a cookie cutter evil corporation from a video game (Umbrella Corporation?) doesn't help their image. Also all the security breaches and suing people didn't help either.[/QUOTE]
 
osrk said:
The point is they have a long long history of selling products that can only use proprietary accessories or connectors. From shitty expensive flash card to proprietary chargers that have encryption sony has been continuously producing over priced crap with proprietary components. This and the fact that they almost fit the definition of a cookie cutter evil corporation from a video game (Umbrella Corporation?) doesn't help their image. Also all the security breaches and suing people didn't help either.
Click to expand...

What, exactly, is your definition of evil? They don't kill people or make bio weapons or fund "terrorism" so not really sure of the comparison to umbrella. Producing products you don't seem worthy of purchase doesn't appear anywhere in any definition. Panasonic cameras both use different chargers, are expensive, and the professional ones take p2 media (flash media way more expensive than MS duos). Is panasonic thus even more "evil"? :p

TBH, though lame, the wanting to avoid the shitty flash media is a pretty legitimate excuse. If you have ever tried to buy flash media online, especially 8gb+, you should know well. You have a choice of expensive buying from a store (still might be fake) or rolling the dice online (even places like amazon has lots and lots of fake media mixed with the good, usually 4gb modules flashed to report as 16gb/32gb/64gb and rebranded).

The suing people, whatever your views on it is pretty much mandatory. If you have IP you have to defend/protect it by law. What would be your move in such a position ignoring everything emotive? "Haha, oh well, let's just do nothing!".
 
wtiger said:
I simply avoid sony products on principal. Between the way they behave to how crappy their products have become. I simply avoid giving them any of my money.
Click to expand...

So do I. I tell friends and family to avoid buying Sony products due to the overpriced nature of their electronics. There are simply better, cheaper options than Sony in the market.
 
10k jobs @ a burden rate of lets say $100/hour yields yearly savings of ~2.1 billion. Heading in the right direction..but honeslty, even with the "bonus cuts", It won't be enough to cover the 6 billion loss.

Sony needs to probably cut 50% of their management 20% of their base employees to at least stem the blood loss and give them some room to grow back over the next decade.

My guess is Sony has a lot of "hidden overhead" similar to that of what hte American automakers went through. It might take Bankruptcy protection to bring Sony back.
 
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