Sony Corp. CEO Kazuo Hirai is walking a high-tech high wire.
Under pressure from activist investor Dan Loeb to turn the electronics and entertainment giant around, Hirai unveiled a bevy a new products at last week’s Consumer Electronic Show — each one, he hoped, proof that the company’s US entertainment assets needn’t be split from its Japan manufacturing operations.
So far, Loeb, who attended CES, seems happy with Hirai’s progress.
Loeb told The Post he was planning to buy Samsung products for his AV system but then loved Sony’s new Ultra-HDTVs so much, he changed his mind.
“They want to create excitement and buzz around products,” said Loeb, “The TVs looked great, as did the phones. They have an action camera that is taking on GoPro [the sector’s leading brand].
“They’ve got cool stuff,” Loeb gushed. “For the first time in a while, it feels like they’re competing against Samsung again.”
While Loeb is impressed, Hirai still has 9 miles of bad road ahead of him.
While Sony’s new TVs may be impressive, they are expensive and being introduced into a US market where sales fell 4 percent last year.
Sony spent heavily to roll out a new line of smartphones, but the sector is dominated by Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhones.
And despite Sony’s early in-roads into streaming movies, it is far behind Netflix.
Plus, Hirai has promised Loeb he will rein in spending.
Back in October, Sony slashed its full year profit expectations and Sony Pictures, led by CEO Michael Lynton, began a $100 million cost-cutting exercise.
Hirai has been busy in recent months shaking up the ranks, replacing his chief strategy officer, the head of the electronics business and the head of home entertainment.
The pressure is on Sony’s profitable US entertainment assets — principally Sony Pictures, Sony Music and its TV production and distribution unit — to keep the rest of the business afloat.
Critics are not as upbeat as Loeb.
“Sony doesn’t have the theme parks to offset a bad year,” said one insider, referring to the advantage a Disney Corp. has over Sony’s entertainment unit.
Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, thinks Hirai should push harder into gaming, in which it is the sector leader.
Play Station 4 has sold 4 million devices, outdistancing Microsoft’s Xbox One. PS4 is on track to sell 12 million units this year.
But even that sector bright spot is blemished, Pachter said. PS Now, Sony’s video-game rental service, was unveiled just months after similar services — GameTap and OnLive — both shut down.
Whether Sony’s entertainment assets are ever peeled off will largely depend on Hirai’s effort to resuscitate its electronics segment.
While Loeb is pressing for cuts in the Hollywood studio to spark a corporate turnaround, if Hirai fails to bring excitement — and sales — to his TV and camera business, no amount of cuts may be enough to keep the company together.