CORP TALK: In an effort to “spark further innovation, strengthen competitiveness, improve profitability and position itself as a global leader in products and services for the digital, networked age”, Sony Corporation announced a major reorg on its electronics and game businesses, and a new management team with changes effective April 1, 2009.

Sir Howard Stringer, CEO and Chairman of Sony Corporation, will add on the role of Sony President come April 1, 2009.

While Sir Howard Stringer remains as Chairman and CEO, he’ll also assume the role of President. He will directly oversee the electronics business in this role. The two new groups are:

A) The Networked Products & Services Group: Oversees Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), personal computers (VAIO), new mobile products (eg. WALKMAN line), Sony Media Software and Services. This group’s objective is to maximize potential of Sony’s networked products and services. One key focus of the group is to expand the PlayStation Network service platform, which currently stands at 20 million registered accounts. Kazuo Hirai, currently the President and Group CEO of SCE will become Exec. VP of Sony Corp and President of this group.

B) The New Consumer Products Group (”New CPG”): Oversees Television, Digital Imaging, Home Audio and Video businesses. Hiroshi Yoshioka, currently the Exec. VP of Sony Corp and President of the TV Biz. Grp. will become the Exec. Deputy President of Sony Corp. and President of the New CPG. The semicon and component biz. grp will also report to him. (Editor opinion: 1)

Terence Ang, Supervising Editor, HWM

Terence (HWM): Big shifts in the economy or ecosystem always change the way consumers spend their time and money. It is believed that with the current turmoil, the general populace is staying home more often and spending a great deal of time in the living room. 

The announced reorg by Sony Corp focusing on both the gaming and TV businesses mean a signal of a potential change in positioning and price for some of Sony’s high-value product lines in relation to one another. The pressure to maintain market share in a volatile price-competitive environment would see Sony tightening the way it offers services within its network of hardware, to better compete against the LG-Netflix or Samsung-Yahoo TV partnerships. (more…)