Sony chiefs to forgo bonuses after big loss
SONY’S new boss and six other top executives will return their performance-based bonuses for the past fiscal year, the Japanese company said yesterday after posting on Friday its fourth consecutive annual loss.
Chairman Sir Howard Stringer and chief executive Kazuo Hirai are among the top dogs who will not receive their bonuses, which in the 2011 financial year set Sony back by a total of ¥ 224bn (£1.86bn).
The company declined to say how much the bonuses would have cost last year, when it dropped to a £3.78bn loss.
The record low, reported on Friday, knocked four per cent off Sony’s share price, which dropped further on Monday when it fell below the ¥ 1,000 mark for the first time since 1980.
Sony, which dominated the tech world when it introduced the Walkman portable cassette player in the late 1970s, has struggled to keep up with Apple’s iPhones and Samsung’s TVs.
But the company’s new boss Hirai, who took the helm in April, has predicted a return to the black next year, forecasting a ¥ 30bn profit.
The Tokyo-based company said in April it will cut 10,000 jobs and spend nearly $1bn on an “urgent” overhaul.