When the largest game publisher in the world threatens to stop making games for your console, what do you do? Do you negotiate, as was their obvious goal? Or do you sarcastically poke fun at their CEO? Ah, right.
Fortune’s profile-cum-appraisal of Howard Stringer and his efforts to reform Sony paints a fairly bleak picture. Stringer’s got some solid ideas, but implementing them sounds like a nightmare, and the future—even in his hopeful forecast—is alarmingly hazy.
What you might’ve missed about Sir Howard becoming Emperor of Sony is that it means he won the war to reorganise it—meaning Sony’s stuff could become awesome again.
Howard Stringer, up until now Sony’s CEO and most public face, has been named President as well. An interesting move, as he’s always been surpisingly frank about Sony’s unwieldy size and structure.
Remember when Howard Stringer said that he “wasn’t recession proof” at this CES keynote? Yeah, he wasn’t joking. Sony is about to post its first loss in 14 years, and it’s a doozy.
The second real day of CES 2009 kicks off with Sony CEO Howard Stringer’s keynote speech. Sony said yesterday they saved BIG product announcements for the gadget emperor himself. What are they? (Besides Tom Hanks.)
The Cybershot G3 is a camera so special Sony Sir Howard Stringer himself did the honours: It’s the world’s first Wi-Fi camera with a built-in browser.
We’d already heard Sony is planning deep layoffs—16,000 workers gone—but now the Times of London says that it’s gearing up for a bunch of “sacred cow-slaying” measures, including the closure “of several major divisions.”
newVideoPlayer("/Stringer_Sony_Toobig.flv", 475, 376,""); In perhaps the most spirited and cheery interview I’ve ever seen given by Sony chair Howard Stringer, the knight of the realm tells Charlie Rose that after several years in the driver’s seat, he’s still trying to integrate all of the electronics divisions of Sony. “We’re so big that we’re making the same thing twice in different parts of the company, and nobody seems to notice!” he laughs. On a side note, I am glad to see Stringer so relaxed. I think he really was playing Chicken during the Blu-ray/HD DVD format war, and at least there’s one major issue he doesn’t have to worry about anymore. Now, about this economic downturn… [Charlie Rose]
With Bill Gates’ part time transition in full effect, Steve Ballmer will be picking up Keynote duties at 2009′s CES, but only for the pre show speech. Opening night honours go to the charming and witty Sir Howard Stringer, who is like Sony’s CEO answer to Benny Hill. I’d say I’m satisfied with these two as speakers, considering how entertaining they’ve been on previous occasions. [CES]
