Sony Corp says no more job cuts, plant shutdowns

Sony Corp, the world’s second-biggest consumer electronics maker, said it has no plans to announce any additional reorganisation beyond the job cuts and plant closures it unveiled in December.

“We announced the restructuring of the electronics business last month,” Atsuo Omagari, a Tokyo-based spokesman at Sony, said by phone on Monday. “We are not planning to announce further restructuring at this time.”

The company is near a corporate upheaval that may see additional job cuts and significant changes to management and manufacturing processes, the London-based Times reported on its Web site, citing unidentified people familiar with the company. The restructuring may be announced early next month and may largely affect Sony’s domestic Japanese operations, through factory closures and the abolition of some major divisions, the newspaper said.

Sony on December 9 said it plans to cut 8,000 full-time jobs, or 5 per cent of its electronics workforce, and another 8,000 seasonal and part-time workers. Tokyo-based Sony at the time said a “much” larger-than-anticipated deterioration in the economy spurred the measures and the company may revise its profit targets.

The company also said it will curtail investments, farm out production and move away from unprofitable businesses by March 2010 to save more than $1.1 billion (¥100 billion) a year.

Omagari said Sony will detail the cost and impact on earnings of the measures announced last month in late January.

Sony shares rose 2.5 per cent to close at ¥1,970 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 2.1 per cent.

Japanese markets opened for a half-day’s trading on Monday.