Sony Closing Two Research Labs
Sony Closing Two Research Labs...and preparing to
lay off 10,000 workers. This is supposed to help their "focus".
Sony Corp. has decided to close two of its four external research laboratories in Japan as part of restructuring efforts, the company said Friday.
The Tokyo-based consumer electronics company will shut down an image and video processing technologies lab, the Sony-Kihara Research Center, at the end of June, while the Sony Nakamura Management Institute will close at the end of April, according to company official Mami Imada.
The company has said it will focus on core products in its electronics business with the best chances for profits, such as portable digital music players, flat-panel TVs and the PlayStation 3 next-generation video game machine.
It has also said it will slash 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of Sony’s global work force, by the end of March 2008.
So far, I see nothing but “reforms” designed to make the short-term balance sheet look good.
Looking to the future?
The Kihara Research Center was established in 1988 and got its name from former Sony managing director Nobutoshi Kihara, who is the creator of Japan’s first tape recorder. The Research Center, which currently runs with Kihara as CEO, develops various computer-graphics products. It jointly created the PlayStation 2’s graphic-synthesizer engine with Sony Computer Entertainment.
No loss. Right?
Posted: Sun - April 2, 2006 at 10:50 AM