Sir Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony, will now also take on the title of president, after it was announced on Friday that Ryoji Chubachi has stood down to take on the role of vice chairman, effective from 1 April.
This announcement is a part of a major reorganisation at Sony, where in addition to Stringers new appointment, the company is also integrating several of its key categories.
A Networked Products and Services Group has now been created that incorporates Sony’s Vaio PC business with entertainment, mobile products and media software and services businesses.
The new category will be headed by Kazuo Hirai, the current head of Sony Computer Entertainment, and see various products like Vaio laptops, Playstation and Walkman all fall under the one category.
The second new division is the Consumer Products Group, which will amalgamate television, digital imaging, home audio and video divisions. It will be led by current head of the TV business group, Hiroshi Yoshioka.
Yoshioka will also be in charge of the semiconductor and component businesses.
Sony is rapidly trying to reconcile after the dramatic effect of the global economic crisis, and its biggest reported operating loss in over 14 years.
With Stringer’s new appointment and the integration of existing categories, Sony is definitely trying to revitalise the brand and offer new and improved services to consumers.
It looks like the announcement may have done just the trick, due to the fact that the Nikkei has reported a 1.1 per cent increase in Sony’s share price as of this morning, and outperformed the Nikkei average, which fell 3.1 per cent.