The company sees the downturn in the US economy and the vibrancy of the mobile telecommunications market in Japan. This temptation is appealing as the company experienced a fall in profits during the last three months of 2000, mainly due to manufacturing faults within the PlayStation 2 forcing the company to halve its full-year net profit forecast to $40.6 million.
The company has been forced to diversify into secondary markets in order to maintain an adequate revenue flow, in order to facilitate this the company believes that a more centralized management or global hub will further this. Sony said it would increase the number of its major divisions, internally called network companies, to seven from the current five.
The global hub will endeavour to create a more focused business direction and maintain greater control when these decisions have been taken.
Sony’s shares closed down 4.06%, their biggest one-day fall since December 15, as fears grew over whether the recent global rebound in technology stocks could be sustained.
After 10 years of experiences in managing various businesses such as music, picture, games and electronics, we are now well-positioned to take the lead in the coming broadband age, chairman and chief executive Nobuyuki Idei said in a news conference.
