Sony Corp. to axe 10,000 jobs

As part of a huge restructuring programme designed to reduce group net losses, Sony Corporation is to cut 10,000 jobs and lose 11 of its 65 manufacturing plants.

Around 4000 of the company's employees in Japan will lose their jobs, with the other 6000 cuts made overseas - in total, 7 per cent of Sony's current 151,000 strong workforce. The cuts will be made by March 2008.

The restructuring programme is no doubt designed to boost profits and share prices - Sony stocks have dropped in value by two thirds since 2000, and the company has forecast a group net loss of 10bn Yen (USD 90 million) for the current financial year.

"We have made promises before but we failed to execute them," CEO Howard Stringer told a Tokyo press conference.

"We must fight like the Sony warriors that we are."

Sony declined to comment on which divisions will be most affected by the cuts, so it is not yet known whether any Sony Computer Entertainment employees will face redundancy.

Company president Ryoji Chubachi did say that the Aibo robot research division would have its funding reduced, and that there will be no further product development for the high end Qualia brand.