AfterDawn: News

Shareholders demand Sony CEO Stringer step down

Sony CEO Howard Stringer came under intense scrutiny at the company's recent shareholder meeting, with the masses demanding he resign after three years straight of mounting losses.

The CEO of course did not resign, but did note that he took a 16 percent pay cut for the fiscal year, down to $4.27 million.



PlayStation boss Kaz Hirai, long expected to be Stringer's eventual successor, explained that the company's top priority is to reverse the losses in its TV business, which has now lost money for seven straight fiscal years with an anticipated eight straight next year. Sony's fiscal year ends on March 30th each year.

Despite taking the pay cut, Stringer was awarded about $3.5 million worth of Sony stock options, as his usual bonus.

The company posted a loss of $3.21 billion for the most recent fiscal year, mainly due to the tsunami and earthquake disaster in Japan in March. The hacker attacks on the PSN also cost the company $170 million, mainly thanks to security updates and compensation packages it offered afterwards. It is unclear how much revenue they lost in the weeks the service was forced offline.

Hirai explained (via WSJ) that the turnaround in the TV business would be similar to how he stopped the bleeding in the PlayStation division, with "aggressive cost reductions with parts procurement and more efficient operations as well as overhauling the company's geographic and product strategies."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 29 Jun 2011 2:49

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• 10 comments

• KillerBug

  LoL...4.5 million for that guy? I'll do the job for $1 million a year; I can't guarantee profits, but I know I couldn't possible do worse than this moron.
  
  He really, really needs to step down. Their TV business is never going to be profitable with the insane goals they have for it; they need to focus on things that might actually make them money...either consider the network advertising (really all it is anyway) or dump it and cut the losses.
  
  Actually, what they really need to do is to take a long, hard look at their offerings, their problems, and their most successful competition. They need to adapt to current times, and they need to realize that repeat customers are the bread and butter of a company the size of Sony...so it is best not to go to war with your customer base just for laughs.
  

  http://killerbug666.wordpress.com/

  29.6.2011 03:09 #1

• jackalguy

  ...Quote:and they need to realize that repeat customers are the bread and butter of a company the size of Sony...so it is best not to go to war with your customer base just for laughs. 100000x This^
  

  "The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one"
  
  -George Bernard Shaw

  29.6.2011 03:21 #2

• xtago

  Originally posted by KillerBug: LoL...4.5 million for that guy? I'll do the job for $1 million a year; I can't guarantee profits, but I know I couldn't possible do worse than this moron.
  
  He really, really needs to step down. Their TV business is never going to be profitable with the insane goals they have for it; they need to focus on things that might actually make them money...either consider the network advertising (really all it is anyway) or dump it and cut the losses.
  
  Actually, what they really need to do is to take a long, hard look at their offerings, their problems, and their most successful competition. They need to adapt to current times, and they need to realize that repeat customers are the bread and butter of a company the size of Sony...so it is best not to go to war with your customer base just for laughs. Thank god.
  
  Can finnally get rod of this NCIS crap they make and get rid of the 2 and half men edited by ddp too.
  
  WHat other crap shows can be edited by ddp off?
  
  Glee

  29.6.2011 03:47 #3

• Semperfipal

  I avoid purchasing any Sony product as much as I can. We just received a Sony SMP-N100 streaming media player as a gift. What a piece of crap! Their owners manual and customer support are a joke. I promptly returned the product to the retailer and ordered another brand. I will never knowingly buy a Sony product.

  29.6.2011 08:54 #4

• Interestx

  Sony used to be great, offering high value and well spec'd products.
  
  My experience is that they are almost without exception the most expensive of any particular market and with a spec deeply underwhelming compared to the opposition given the price demanded.
  
  It's a shame really but if ever there was a comapany trading on past glories/reputation I'd say Sony is it right now.
  Their recent years of huge repeated losses do not surprise me.
  
  Equally the sight of a top exec taking a multi-million $+ salary whilst that financial disaster has occurred and brazenly refusing to take responsibility (besides a meaningless, to him, tiny pay-cut....down to a 'only' mere $4.27 millions) is also a sign of the times, very few seem to ever resign on principle these days.
  

  29.6.2011 10:51 #5

• brockie

  @KillerBug hackers more like not customers.

  29.6.2011 11:55 #6

• LordRuss

  Part of me wonders how much of these losses are for tax purposes & how much are for real. If Stringer is only taking a $4.27 mill hit in his pay, yet was "awarded" $3.5 mill in stock options? And that's "Sony" not 'just' say Playstation here, or at least that's what I'm being lead to believe here. That being said, he isn't loosing caca & made MUCH more as a bonus than reported as giving up. Then there's the question, just how much is this idiot making?
  
  Ah, back room deals. kind of like the Champagne Room, except in the Champagne Room there's no sex.
  
  @xtago... hhheeeeeeyyyy... I like NCIS... I'll grant you it's probably run it's course, but let an old man have one show that isn't an old fart show. Cripes! The last thing I need is something like Matlock... Yuck..
  

  http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

  29.6.2011 12:15 #7

• SomeBozo

  I'd be glad to take a pay cut and get paid $4.27 millions for messing up and doing a horrible job too, as i'm certain most here as well would be happy to settle for it as well :)
  

  29.6.2011 12:18 #8

• LordRuss

  I'll second that... He's kind of acting like a weather man, only much large contradictions and people actually give a s&$^ about the predictions.
  

  http://onlyinrussellsworld.blogspot.com

  29.6.2011 13:13 #9

• dEwMe

  Shouldn't he have commited ritual suicide by now?
  
  
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe

  29.6.2011 14:50 #10