Sony makes change at top amid entertainment push
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Sony Group chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida is stepping down.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
River Akira Davis
TOKYO – Sony Group chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida, who helped further the company’s decades-long push to transform itself from a consumer electronics brand into a global entertainment company, is stepping down.
Mr Hiroki Totoki, 60, a top Sony executive who has worked closely with Mr Yoshida in leading that drive, will take over as CEO in April, the company said in a statement on Jan 29. Mr Yoshida, 65, will stay on in his position as chair.
The switch-up at the top is only the eighth in the 78-year history of Sony, which was founded as an electronics shop in Tokyo in the wake of World War II.
Before it lost its lead in recent decades, Sony was the first name in consumer electronics, churning out handfuls of iconic inventions like the Sony Walkman, which it introduced in 1979.
Over the past two decades, Sony faced rising competition in devices such as computers and televisions from rivals in the United States and South Korea, and the Japanese tech giant began rebuilding itself as a gaming and entertainment powerhouse.
Mr Yoshida took over as CEO in 2018, after a turbulent decade in which the company reported years of losses and was forced to exit a number of unprofitable businesses, including personal computers. Mr Yoshida inherited from his predecessor, Mr Kazuo Hirai, a company that was no longer bleeding red ink. He sought to maintain momentum.
During Mr Yoshida’s seven years leading Sony, the Japanese company spent billions of dollars building its vast empire of games, music and movies. Those segments accounted for more than three-fifths of its revenue in the most recent July-September quarter – up from less than a third a decade earlier.
Mr Yoshida “solidly guided Sony’s turnaround”, said Ms Mika Nishimura, a senior analyst at Okasan Securities in Tokyo.
For the current fiscal year ending March 31, Sony is forecasting an operating profit of US$8.4 billion (S$11.34 billion), up more than 75 per cent from its earnings in 2017.
Buoyed by the recent strength of its digital games and a weakened yen, Sony’s shares have recently traded at their highest level in more than two decades.
The company’s stock gained 3.8 per cent on Jan 29 in Tokyo. THE NEW YORK TIMES
