Sony will bounce back: new CEO tells investors

Howard Stringer, the first foreigner to head Sony Corp, today pledged to bring Japanese electronics giant "strong again" after it logged its largest- ever operating loss for fiscal 2008 amid the global economic downturn and intense competition.       

Stringer, a Welsh-born American, Sony Corp's first chief executive officer and chairman, assured investors at a shareholders' meeting here that the company was seeing "progress" in its latest restructuring measures which included a new management reshuffle to boost its unprofitable game and TV business.     

Sony announced in May a group operating loss of 227.78 billion yen ($2.35 billion) for last fiscal year due to dwindling demand for television sets and a stronger yen, which erodes its overseas profit, with its group net balance sinking into the red for the first time in 14 years.     

As part of its restructuring efforts, Sony has said it would cut 16,000 jobs globally and close some manufacturing sites — measures that are expected to lead the company to reduce costs of more than 300 billion yen ($3.1 billion) for the current fiscal year through next March.     

Stringer said Sony aims to "swiftly recover our business performance...Improve profitability and strengthen our competitiveness" amid the global economic slump that has shrunk demand for TVs and other consumer products as well as the tough business environment which has seen rivals edge over Sony, Kyodo news agency reported.

Stringer noted that Sony made "champion products" in the 20th century such as the PlayStation, Vaio computers and Walkman music players, but it was outdone by rivals that utilised Sony's technology and went one step further, citing companies that added sophisticated functions to Sony technology such as Apple Inc's iPod music players.     

"We are not going to be beaten again in the network age," he told the more than 8,000 shareholders present at the meeting.     

"We have brilliant hardware engineers which are the foundation and center of (the company) and we will marry this with equally strong software" that will make Sony "strong again," said Stringer, who doubles as president and chairman.     

The two-and-a-half-hour stockholders' meeting ended with shareholders approving company-backed proposals including the appointment of 15 directors including Stringer, thus giving the go-ahead for the new management to continue to carry out reforms.     

"We have not finished (with our restructuring efforts). We have a long way to go," Stringer said.     

Ryoji Chubachi, who has resigned as president, will remain a director.