Ben-DutkaThe company is about to post big losses, so…
According to a new Wall Street Journal report , Sony executives are prepared to take up to a 50 percent pay cut due to the company's current struggles.
The news comes shortly before Sony is expected to announce its fourth annual loss in the last five years; this loss may total 130 billion yen ($1.27 billion).
Sony's PC business is down and the company is trying to sell it, and that's contributing to the problems. Even though the PlayStation 4 leads the next-gen console race with 7 million units sold, Sony's fiscal year projection of selling 20 million PlayStation devices in the 2014 fiscal year is actually lagging behind where it was 6 years ago in terms of total hardware sales (down 45 percent).
All of this could mean that guys like CEO Kaz Hirai might be bringing home a paycheck half as big as it's supposed to be.
This is sad news. But the Doomsayers need to chill and realize the Playstation brand is strong will be around as long as it is profitable. Sony will just cut off the diseased hemorrhaging parts. I just hope this doesn't limit the PS ecosystem. For instance, I hope PS+ doesn't get hurt by these financial problems. I hope there are no studio closings on the horizon. Hopefully they can get rid of the PC side quickly. I can see Sony being in Movies and Games only in the future. Nothing wrong with that as they are both big money makers.
If they start trying to sell off significant sections of R&D subsidiaries…. that's when you need to worry. Not in times of transition.
Wait a month when this news makes fidgety investors sell, then buy when it's low. There's way too many subsidiaries of Sony Corp for this to spell disaster. If you ask me, this type of news of pay cuts (for execs who's primary income is from bonuses, anyways) is a great way to help lower the price for the company to buy back more. (They are now open to buy shares back directly, by the way)
I'm gonna watch… if the price dips below the $10 mark in the next couple months, I'm gonna be all over that. Especially since if they start paying out dividends around Christmastime, the yield at that cost would be quite high. Especially if you put it through a synthetic DRiP.
Well the original source made this sound like it was a voluntary pay cut from the Sony Execs, they also won't be taking any bonuses this year.
I was also making a stretch in assuming a part of their normal "Bonus" would be a certain amount investing in company shares. In a buy-back scenario, they wouldn't make more money, but it would automatically invest X number of dollars into a fund that purchases more shares. It would be low cost shares, but I can see the temporary perk in hopes they rise again.
Interesting. MS just announced the obvious. Xbox One now comes without a Kinect for $399
Project take back America is officially under way for MS.
bout time them slackers saw the light
And you'll no longer need a Gold subscription for Netflix and Hulu. That only took them…five or so years to realize?
suddenly the XO and PS4 seem really similar. it would seem the biggest factor now between them concerns what peripherals you want to connect with them and what exclusives you want.
Other than that, might as well be either or….
Honestly I think it's a bad idea for them to start selling off portions of their company. I do however think that as a company it's much more responsible of those running it to take pay cuts than to lay off the people who make the least.
<<<<< I do however think that as a company it's much more responsible of those running it to take pay cuts than to lay off the people who make the least. >>>>>>>
^ THIS,
Amen!!!!
And although I don't think every company is willing to do it the way mine did, I was one of hundreds of full-time Day-1'ers laid off in 3 separate mass chopping's, so that the bigwigs at my old company didn't have to relinquish any of their insanely high & ever-growing bonuses.
Meanwhile both, them, and the jobs headhunter that they purposely hired to fire hundreds of us in every department on what I call "The Mothers Day Weekend Massacre of 2011", are all living even higher on the hog now, while I went from a average of $34 an hour "Day-1 employee", to a now stewing in hell at a sub-poverty level, making only $80 a month now.
So I certainly have to commend any company where the top brass are willing to save their company employees, over those ruthless companies who are quick-on-the-draw in kicking their most valuable day-1 employees to the curb just to keep their bonuses, like mine did.
OH, and I'll also make book that if Activision's Bobbie Kotex were suddenly in this same situation, that he would also do that chop, chop, chop, and he'd do it quick, fast, & in a MF'ing hurry too.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 5/13/2014 1:40:20 PM
They have to get rid of their TV business ASAP. Its really a sinking ship that's dragging everything down with it.
The TV business lost them 7 and a half billion dollars in just the last decade. That's more than what Disney paid for the entire Lucasfilm or Marvel universe.
Yeah, they're good TV's but no one wants to pay what Sony asks for 'em. So they need to get rid of that.
Their PC business is also doing terrible.
Its bad that some jobs are lost in the process of cutting off bad businesses or divisions. But its a lot worse if the whole thing comes falling down and then everyone loses their job.
I don't think it's a bad idea for those particular gents to sell off their shares. They aren't in the business of earning money primarily off dividend income. They want their money to work for them and grow their assets.
BTW, I bow to Sony's top brass for taking paycuts, rather than having to chop it's employees down even more.
That's the way it should be for all company's top brass, if your company does well, you get paid well. And if your company doesn't, then neither should you.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 5/13/2014 1:49:48 PM
Poor Sony. To think this all started when they decided not to get in the plasma and LCD party early for fear of cannibalization.
The nice thing is about strategy and knowing what to spend and when to spend, is that it comes back quite quickly.
I've always been good with money, so I look at everything as an investment. Sony is no different so this loss isn't going to hit them where it hurts, but rather allow them some breathing room. If they want to continue being who they are they're going to have to not give the big wigs 150 million dollars in bonus checks. It makes sense and allows for further developement in other areas.
The last thing Sony is going to do is screw over the gaming portion of their corporate. All in all I'd only be worried if something in their gaming side was in trouble, which it really isn't.
What's interesting is the stock for Sony rose .19% So if thats a sign of whats to come, this loss is just a necessary loss. An eye for an eye, one leg of a centipede. All those metaphors.
The only people who will be sad are those who were planning on buying another summer island paradise for themselves.
well i hope they can bounce back so playstation will live on
happy gaming =)
something they should of done YEARS ago!
especially before closing down some of their most successful studios, i mean playstations the ONLY sector not hemorrhaging money!
its not just the vaio line, besides PS, EVERY subsidiary of $ony has been bleeding money for YEARS!
bravias saw a massive decline in quality when the ps3 released and bombed costing $ony massive!
same goes for their audio line, the decline of the walkman, the decline of Xploid car audio, their home theaters systems, everything has declined in quality and thus seen its sales fall through the floor!
when you can buy a better system, a panasonic or samsung or whatever, for 500+ bucks less, of course the sales are going to drop!
"I mean, Playstation's the ONLY sector not hemorrhaging money!" (with some friendly edits)
This couldn't be further from the truth.