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Although Sony Corp.’s change at the top has triggered another round of sale rumors, insiders don’t expect their new chief to start carving up the company any time soon.
The Japanese entertainment and electronics giant confirmed yesterday that PlayStation boss Kazuo Hirai, 51, will be the company’s next chief executive, replacing Howard Stringer, who will remain chairman. The Post first predicted the corporate change in November.
Since the report, media bankers and rival entertainment companies have been reaching out to Sony, viewing Stringer’s exit as a catalyst for a shake-up of the entertainment portfolio that includes movie studio Sony Pictures, record label Sony Music, and Sony Pictures Television, the studio behind TV shows such as AMC’s “Breaking Bad.”
Sources said Stringer’s former employer, CBS Corp., is among those to have eyed Sony’s entertainment holdings. However, Sony has been a buyer of late as opposed to a seller. It’s in the process of acquiring EMI’s music-publishing arm and also bought out Ericsson’s half of their phone venture, Sony Ericsson.
“The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony’s diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets,” Hirai said in a statement yesterday.
Sony, which rode to early success with its Walkman portable music player, has struggled to keep up with Apple and nimbler rivals like South Korea’s Samsung.
The change comes as Sony Corp. reported a net loss of 159 billion yen ($2.1 billion) for the October-December quarter early today — as weak TV sales, a strong yen and the disruption in production from flooding in Thailand cut into its earnings.