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Sony CEO heckled but endorsed at shareholder meeting
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 19 June 2014
Sony Corp top man Kazuo Hirai was given a rough ride at the electronics and entertainment giant’s Annual General Meeting earlier today, with some investors openly heckling the CEO, though shareholders nevertheless backed the senior management team and their current plans for moving the company back into profit.
Sony Corp has been struggling for a number of years now, with the electronics side of the business performing particularly badly. A temporary return to profit in 2012/3 was followed by more losses in the financial year just gone, and the company is expected to make a loss this financial year too. But beyond that, profits will return Hirai said today.
Noting Sony’s heritage, according to the Associated Press, the CEO told his investor audience: “The best way to build our future is for Sony to remain Sony, and realise our motto to become a company that inspires and fulfils your curiosity”.
As previously reported, Sony has already sold off its laptop business and is spinning its television division (the bit that makes TV sets, rather than programmes) into a separate company. Though Hirai confirmed again at the AGM, in response to a shareholder question, that selling off some or all of Sony’s US-based entertainment business, which includes the Sony music firms, is not on the agenda, despite the previously reported claims by American investor Daniel Loeb that that would be good move.