An article at Bloomberg.com has highlighted the improvements that Sony’s Kaz Hirai has made to the company since he took over the helm in 2012. In the five years, shares in the company have doubled in value and outperformed the Nikkei 25 index. Sony has reduced staffing levels by a long way (at least 23%) and spun out the Vaio business. It has also cut staffing in the TV business which is regarded as having been cut back as far as possible by Japanese analysts. The PlayStation business, where Hirai earned his reputation at Sony, has continued to do well.
The biggest blot on the curent landscape is a difficult position for the company’s film business.
Analyst Comment
One of the points made in the article is that Sony has reduced the number of products. It has been a long point of view of mine that one of the dramatic contrasts between Sony and Apple is the radically smaller number of products sold by Apple, compared to Sony. I have also said for many years that there remains little evidence to back up Sony’s claim that owning a content business helps the hardware side, although this seems to be the direction that Apple may be drifting, although Apple is more interested in controlling the content than creating and owning it, so far.
Sony’s consumer business has declined as financial results have improved. Image:Bloomberg
