索尼14年来首度亏损将进一步裁员
Sony Plans Deeper Cuts 2009年1月24日Sony Corp. said it would report an annual loss for the first time in 14 years as plunging LCD television prices and a strong yen are forcing Chief Executive Howard Stringer to pursue his most drastic restructuring measures to date, more than doubling the cost cuts that were announced in December.
Crippled by a global economic downturn and intensifying price competition, Sony said it now expects to post a net loss of 150 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 31, a reversal from a 150-billion-yen profit forecast that was made in October. It also cut its sales forecast by 14% to 7.7 trillion yen.
Mr. Stringer, who took over in 2005 as the first non-Japanese executive leading the electronics and entertainment conglomerate, said Sony has to accelerate its restructuring plans with a sense of urgency to reduce fixed costs that are too bloated and a supply chain that is too slow.
Last month, Sony said it would cut 16,000 jobs from its electronics divisions and close as many as six factories in an attempt to save more than 100 billion yen in annual costs.
Now, it plans to expand the layoffs to other businesses, including its entertainment and videogame arm, and slash spending across the board to shave an additional 150 billion yen in costs.
Sony didn't specify the number of new layoffs, but said it plans to close a television factory in Japan by June and it will outsource more production of lower-cost products to contract manufacturers, a strategy used by competitors. The company didn't offer further details of how it would achieve the cost savings.
In many ways, Sony's competition with Apple Inc. captures the challenges facing the company. Apple came to dominate the market that Sony's Walkman created not with hardware brilliance or manufacturing prowess but with simple-to-use software and elegant design. On Wednesday Apple reported net profit rose 1.5% in the fiscal quarter ended Dec.27.
Apple relies on contract manufacturers for production and doesn't have any factories of its own. By comparison, Sony has 57 electronics factories. Half are in Japan where labor costs can be high and a strong yen can cripple profit margins when funds from products sold overseas are repatriated into yen. More than 80% of Sony's electronics are sold overseas. Earlier in the week, the yen hit a new 13-year high against the U.S. dollar at 87.10.
Many Japanese companies consider it a social responsibility to care for their workers and prefer to make cutting full-time jobs at home a last resort. A third of Sony's 180,000 full-time employees are based in Japan.
Sony forecast an operating loss of 260 billion yen, the company's biggest to date, compared with a previous estimate for an operating profit of 200 billion yen.
Preliminary results for the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31 show sales fell 25% from a year earlier to 2.1 trillion yen, while net profit fell 95% to 10 billion yen. Historically, Sony earns a larger portion of its full-year profit during the holiday quarter.
In the past three years, the 66-year-old Mr. Stringer has shed 10,000 jobs at the company, separate from the 16,000 job cuts announced in December, mostly from Sony's non-Japanese staff.
But while those efforts were starting to pay off with improved profitability, Sony was hit with a double whammy of a severe economic slowdown in its key markets and a strong yen.
Now, Mr. Stringer is pushing to make the deep and painful cuts in Japan that he hasn't made in earlier restructuring plans, using the economic downturn as the catalyst to take more drastic measures, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Analysts, meanwhile, said the lack of detail about Sony's restructuring efforts raises questions about whether the company's plans are sufficient.
The company tripled its forecast for restructuring charges for this fiscal year to 60 billion yen and said it would incur an additional 110 billion yen in restructuring charges next year.
索尼14年来首度亏损 将进一步裁员
索尼公司说，将出现14年来的首次年度亏损，原因是液晶电视机价格的暴跌和日圆走强。首席执行长霍华德?斯金格也将被迫采取迄今为止最大力度的重组措施，将去年12月份时宣布的成本削减金额再增加一倍以上。
受全球经济低迷和价格竞争加剧的打击，索尼目前预计，在截至3月31日的财年中将净亏损1,500亿日圆（合17亿美元），而公司去年10月份时还预计能够盈利1,500亿日圆。索尼还将销售额预期下调了14%，至7.7万亿日圆。
Getty Images 东京一家电器商店里的顾客在选购索尼的液晶电视2005年上任的斯金格是首位领导这家电子和娱乐产品巨头的外国人。他说，索尼需要加快重组计划，要有减少过于庞大的固定成本和加快过于迟缓的供应链的紧迫感。
上个月，索尼说将从电子产品部门裁员16,000人，并关闭多达六家工厂，以每年节省超过1,000亿日圆的成本。
如今，索尼计划将裁员扩大到其它业务领域，包括娱乐和电子游戏部门，在全公司再削减1,500亿美元的成本。
索尼没有具体说明新的裁员人数，但说计划6月份前关闭日本的一家电视机厂，并增加低成本产品的外包──索尼的竞争对手就采取了这个策略。索尼没有透露更多将如何实现成本节约的细节。
在许多方面，索尼与苹果的竞争都是公司面临的主要挑战。苹果逐渐夺走了索尼的Walkman打下的市场，它靠的不是硬件上的亮点或制造实力，而是简单易用的软件和优雅的设计。周三，苹果公布截至12月27日的财政季度净利润增长了1.5%。
苹果自己并没有工厂，而是依靠合同制造商进行生产。相比之下，索尼共有57家电子厂。其中一半工厂位于劳动成本很高的日本，而日圆升值又会降低在海外销售的利润率。索尼有超过80%的电子产品销往海外。本周早些时候，日圆兑美元创出87.10日圆的13年新高。
许多日本公司认为爱护自己的员工是它们的社会责任，不到万不得已不会在国内裁减正式员工。索尼的18万名全职员工中有三分之一位于日本。
索尼预计将出现2,600亿日圆的营运亏损，这是该公司迄今以来的最大亏损。此前这家公司曾预计将实现2,000亿日圆的营业利润。
截至12月31日第三财季的初步业绩显示，销售额较上年同期下降25%，至2.1万亿日圆，净利润下降95%，至100亿日圆。从历史上看，索尼的全年利润主要来自10至12月的假日季节。
在过去3年中，除了12月份宣布裁员16,000人之外，66岁的斯金格共裁员1万人，其中多数是索尼的海外职员。
但尽管这些做法开始产生效果，利润率出现了提高，但索尼还是受到了其主要市场经济严重放缓和日圆走强的双重打击。
一位知情人士称，如今，斯金格正在日本推行以前的重组计划中所不包含的大刀阔斧的降低成本举措，利用经济低迷之机采取更大力度的重组措施。
与此同时，分析师说，索尼的重组方案缺少细节，这令人对其计划是否充分产生了怀疑。
索尼将本财年的重组支出增加了两倍，至600亿日圆，并说下财年将再产生1,100亿日圆的重组支出。
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