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Company Brief
Sony

by Sherry Kercher

Copyright 2020, Faulkner Information Services. All
Rights Reserved.

Docid: 00018768

Publication Date: 2009

Report Type: VENDOR

Preview

Japan’s Sony Corporation is a global media conglomerate active in a
number of businesses through its five operating segments: Electronics,
Games, Pictures, Financial Services, and other businesses such as Sony
Music Entertainment. In 2019, Sony retained its chips business, rejecting
a call for a spin-off by Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point LLC. The
company is focusing on being the market leader in imaging applications and
the global leader in sensing. It cites a decline in its mobile business as
the cause of financial difficulty. This report details the company, its
products and services, and its recent activities.

Report Contents:

• Fast Facts
• History
• Key Executives
• Major Products
• Major Competitors
• Recent Activity

Fast Facts

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Name: Sony Corp
Headquarters
1-7-1 Konan, Minato-ku 
Tokyo 108-0075, Japan
+81-3-5448-2111
(800) 556-3411
Fax: +81-3-5448-2244
Web: http://www.sony.net/
Type of Vendor: Consumer electronics manufacturer
Founded: 1946
Service Areas: Global
Stock Symbol: SNE (NYSE)

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History

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Sony is a consumer electronics company with roots dating back to 1946
when the company was founded as Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering.

The company manufactures a variety of offerings such as batteries,
cameras, computer monitors, DVD players, flat-screen TVs, home-use game
consoles and software, image-based software, and semiconductors.

In addition, the company makes stereos, TVs, VCRs, and other consumer
electronics, which account for most of its revenues. Sony’s wares are
chiefly targeted toward those in the consumer and industrial markets. It
also conducts its operations in various financial service businesses, such
as banking operations, insurance operations, and leasing and credit
financing operations. Other operations include an advertising agency
business located in Japan, Internet-related businesses, and a
location-based entertainment business in Japan and the US. Additionally,
the company’s entertainment assets include recorded music and video,
motion pictures, DVDs, and TV programming.

Sony was founded in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka, Tamon Maeda, and Akio Morita as
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering. In 1953, it paid
Western Electric US$25,000 for transistor technology licenses. It rolled out
the pocket-sized radio, a Sony-trademarked offering in 1957. The following
year, it rebranded itself under the corporate name Sony. It launched its
Walkman personal stereo system in 1979. In 1988, it acquired CBS Records for
$2 billion, then purchased Columbia Pictures for $4.9 billion. In 1991, it
manufactured the Apple PowerBook. In 1994, the company launched the
PlayStation throughout Japan and introduced it in the United States the
following year.

In 1997, Sony entered into a joint venture with Intel to create a line of
desktop PC systems. Also that year, the company teamed with Philips
Electronics to establish a recording media, called Super Audio CD. 
The next year, it shipped its initial digital, high-definition TV to the
US. Also that same year, the company merged its Loews theaters with
Cineplex Odeon. In 2000, it formed PlayStation.com Japan to sell game
consoles and software over the Internet. A major restructuring also
occurred that year, which led the company to place all of its US
entertainment holdings in a company called Sony Broadband Entertainment.
In 2002, it laid off approximately 13,700 workers, mainly from its
electronics and music businesses, during the fiscal year ending March 31,
2002. Sony Pictures Entertainment renamed its Columbia TriStar Domestic
Television (CTDT) and Columbia TriStar International Television (CTIT)
divisions, designating them as Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and Sony
Pictures Television International (SPTI), respectively. Finally, the
company transformed its Aiwa unit into a wholly-owned subsidiary and
absorbed the struggling firm later in the year.

In 2006, it launched the PlayStation 3 gaming console in November. In
2010, it launched the Android-based smartphone Xperia X10, and named Phil
Molyneux President and Chief Operating Officer, Sony Electronics Inc. In
2011, it lost personal information belonging to approximately 77 million
customers as a result of a hacking incident that occurred between April 17
and April 19, 2011. The company shut down the Network on April 20. The
outage lasted 23 days. On February 15, 2012, Sony acquired Ericsson´s 50
percent equity interest in Sony Ericsson, and changed its name to Sony
Mobile Communications AB upon becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony.
In 2013, along with Capitol Records, Universal Music Group Recordings
Inc., Warner Music Group Corp., and ABKCO Music & Records Inc., it
reported that it was suing Sirius XM Radio, Inc., claiming that the
company did not pay for recordings from before 1972.

In 2014, it warned of a nearly $2 billion USD loss for its fiscal year
ending in March 2015, citing a slowdown in its mobile business as the
cause. The company also cut its workforce by 1,000 employees, or 15
percent. The following year, it acquired Optical Archive Inc. (OAI), a
company that specializes in optical storage systems for the data center
market. In 2017, Sony teamed with IBM to develop a technology designed to
make education more secure. In 2018, Sony teamed with Amazon to offer the
Alexa voice assistant with smart televisions through the Alexa Smart
Screen Device software developers kit. During 2018, it is working to
develop “Communities of Interest,” connecting people through shared
emotional values and experiences, as well as positioning branded hardware
to connect people through video and audio technologies. The company is
also focusing on being the market leader in imaging applications and the
global leader in sensing. In 2019, Sony retained its chips business,
rejecting a call for a spin-off by Daniel Loeb’s activist hedge fund Third
Point LLC. Sony rejected the corporate breakup proposal from Loeb, who had
called on the company to divest its image-sensors business to focus more
on entertainment and improve share price. In 2020, Sony Electronics’
cloud-based media management and collaboration platform, Ci, expanded to
offer enterprise asset management. Ci Catalog allows enterprises to deploy
and manage centralized libraries of rich media.

Key Executives

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• Kenichiro Yoshida–President and Chief Executive
  Officer
• Shiro Kambe–Executive Vice President, Officer in
  charge of Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, CSR, External
  Relations and Information Security & Privacy
• Shigeki Ishizuka–Senior Executive Vice President,
  Officer in charge of Imaging Products & Solution Businesses, Mobile
  Communications Business, Storage Media Business, Representative Director
  and President, President, Digital Imaging Group, Sony Imaging Products
  & Solutions Inc.
• Martin Bandier–Executive Vice President, Officer in
  charge of Music Publishing Business, Chairman & CEO, Sony / ATV
  Music Publishing LLC
• Ichiro Takagi–Senior Executive Vice President,
  Officer in charge of Home Entertainment & Sound Business, Consumer
  AV Sales & Marketing, Manufacturing, Logistics, Procurement and
  Engineering Platform, Representative Director and President, Sony Visual
  Products Inc., Representative Director and President, Sony Video &
  Sound Products Inc.
• Hiroki Totoki–Senior Executive Vice President, Chief
  Financial Officer
• Toru Katsumoto–Executive Vice President, Officer in
  charge of R&D, Medical Business, President, R&D Center,
  Representative Director and Deputy President, Sony Imaging Products
  & Solutions Inc.
• Terushi Shimizu – Officer in charge of Semiconductor
  Business, Representative Director and President, Sony Semiconductor
  Solutions Corporation, Representative Director and President,
  Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, Representative Director
  and President, Sony LSI Design Inc.
• Michinori Mizuno–Executive Vice President, Officer
  in charge of Music Business (Japan), Representative Director and CEO,
  Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
• Kazushi Ambe–Executive Vice President, Officer in
  charge of Human Resources and General Affairs
• Shigeru Ishii–Executive Vice President, President,
  Representative Director, Sony Financial Holdings Inc.
• Tsuyoshi Kodera–Executive Vice President, Officer in
  charge of Game & Network Service Business, President and CEO, Sony
  Interactive Entertainment LLC
• Rob Stringer–Executive Vice President, Officer in
  charge of Music Business (Global), CEO, Sony Music Entertainment
• Anthony Vinciquerra–Executive Vice President,
  Officer in charge of Pictures Business, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures
  Entertainment Inc.
• Jim Ryan – Officer in charge of Game & Network
  Service Business President and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC;
  Representative Director and President, Sony Interactive Entertainment
  Inc.
• Jon Platt – Officer in charge of Music Publishing
  (Global) Chairman and CEO, Sony / ATV Music Publishing LLC
• Masashi Oka – President & CEO, Representative
  Director, Sony Financial Holdings, Inc.
• Shiro Kambe – Officer in charge of Legal,
  Compliance, Corporate Communications, Sustainability, External
  Relations, Quality, Information Security and Privacy
• Kazushi Ambe – Officer in charge of Human Resources
  and General Affairs

Major Products

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Sony manufactures a variety of offerings, such as batteries, cameras,
computer monitors, DVD players, flat-screen TVs, MiniDisc and Walkman
stereo systems, semiconductors, stereos, TVs, VCRs, and other consumer
electronics. Sony’s core products and services are described in Table 1
below. 

Major Competitors

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Sony’s competition is from other large communications service providers.
Major competitors are listed below.

• LG Electronics: http://www.lge.com/
• Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/
• Motorola: http://www.motorola.com/
• Nintendo: http://www.nintendo.com/
• Nokia: http://www.nokia.com/
• Panasonic: http://www.panasonic.com/
• Philips: http://www.philips.com/global/index.page
• Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/
• SANYO: http://www.sanyo.com/
• Siemens: http://www.siemens.com/
• Toshiba: http://www.toshiba.co.jp/

Recent Activity

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In August 2020, Sony released the WH-1000XM4, the fourth-generation
headphones from Sony’s 1000X family. It is a wireless over-ear model that
offers noise cancelation and the ability to adjust ambient sound
automatically based on user preferences. In July 2020, Sony Electronics
released the CFexpress Type A memory cards, in both 80GB and 160GB,
(CEA-G80T and CEA-G160T) as the most recent addition to Sony’s TOUGH
specification cards. Also in July, Sony agreed to make a strategic
investment of $250 million to acquire a minority interest in Epic Games
through a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony.

About the Author

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Sherry Kercher is an editor for Faulkner Information
Services. She holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science,
and tracks and writes about storage, communication networks and equipment,
and Internet technologies.

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