New Sony CEO may
signal strategy change

updated 3:53 p.m. ET March 7, 2005

TOKYO - For years, Sony Corp. has had trouble straddling the world of consumer electronics — its main line of business — and the movies, music and video games it produces to play on those devices.

With the appointment of Howard Stringer as chairman and chief executive, Sony has not only turned to a foreigner but to a strong proponent of the “content” side of the company, a move that could mark a profound shift in its strategy.

“Here you’ve had a hardware-based company for whom content had been tangential turning to the guy who spent his entire career doing content,” said Tom Wolzien, media analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “It’s rather a remarkable change.”

Critics have been calling on Sony Corp. to boost its profitability as the company has come under intense pressure from lower cost Asian rivals and domestic competitors that have gained an edge in key market segments such as flat panel TVs.

Borrowing a page from Nissan Motor Co. and other venerable Japanese companies that have welcomed leaders from abroad, Sony picked the 63-year-old Stringer — who has overseen Sony’s entertainment business — to take the reins.

He replaces Nobuyuki Idei, 67, who has led the Tokyo-based company for a decade.

The Welsh-born Stringer, who holds dual U.S. and British citizenship, told a news conference that it’s time to reinvent Sony and dispense with any tendencies to react slowly to the rapid pace of technological change.

“As with all great institutions, Sony has built a tremendous legacy over 60 years. But we cannot let that trap us or inhibit us. We need to take that legacy and reinvent it,” Stringer said. “The dynamics and competitive landscape have changed. The pace of innovation across all the businesses in which we compete has changed. So Sony too must change.”

Investors have taken a dismal view of Sony’s recent attempts to remake itself. Though Sony’s stock price inched up 1.5 percent on Monday to close at 4,070 yen ($38.76) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, its shares were selling for less than half of what they were worth four years ago.

Products that were once pillars of Sony’s power, such as TVs and portable media players, have suffered declining sales, forcing Sony to increasingly count on hit movies such as “Spider-Man” and “Spider-Man 2” to support its bottom line.

Embarrassingly for the pioneer that first made portable music a reality with the Walkman in the 1980s, Sony allowed Apple Computer Inc. a giant lead in digital music with the iPod player and iTunes online store. Sony is only now coming out with a full line of competing portable players.

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