LONDON, UK - August 23, 2012 - Sony Mobile Communications
AB ("Sony Mobile") today announced that it is altering the
global operational structure of its development sites in
Tokyo, Japan, Lund, Sweden and Beijing, China. In October
2012, Sony Mobile will move its corporate headquarters and
certain other functions from Lund, Sweden, to Tokyo, Japan.
Sony Mobile has also redefined the roles and
responsibilities of each major development site to leverage
the strengths of each respective site. These measures aim
to enhance operational and development capabilities of Sony
Mobile such as time to market efficiency, streamline supply
chain management and drive greater integration with the
wider Sony group.
"Sony has identified the mobile business as one of its core
businesses and the Xperia™ smartphone portfolio continues
to gain momentum with customers and consumers worldwide,"
said Kunimasa Suzuki, President and CEO of Sony Mobile. "We
are accelerating the integration and convergence with the
wider Sony group to continue enhancing our offerings, and a
more focused and efficient operational structure will help
to reduce Sony Mobile's costs, enhance time to market
efficiency and bring the business back to a place of
strength."
In relation to the operational structure changes, Sony
Mobile plans to reduce its global headcount by
approximately 15 percent (approximately 1000 personnel,
including consultants) throughout the financial years of
2012 and 2013 (i.e. by the end of March 2014) as the
company seeks to increase operational efficiency, reduce
costs and drive profitable growth.
Today Sony Mobile filed a redundancy notification
("varsel") with the Swedish authorities to notify them that
the company expects around 650 employees across a number of
functions at Sony Mobile in Lund to be affected by job
closures. The remaining headcount reductions will be
primarily consultants in Sweden. Lund will continue to be
an important strategic site for Sony Mobile, with the main
focus on software and application development.
Sony Mobile is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony
Corporation, following Sony Corporation's acquisition of
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson's 50% stake in Sony
Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, completed on February
15, 2012.
Sony Group Corporation (formerly Sony Corporation) is a world leader in designing, manufacturing, and selling electronics and entertainment products. Net sales break down by activity as follows:
- game sales (28.9%): game consoles, softwares and consumables;
- sale of multimedia products (21.1%): televisions (37.3% of sales), mobile telecommunications equipment (18.8%), still and video cameras (17.7%), audio and video equipment (16.5%) and other (9.7%);
- music production and distribution (10.3%; Sony Music Entertainment);
- sale of imaging and sensing solutions (10.4%);
- cinematography production and distribution and TV broadcasting (8.4%): operating primarily on behalf of Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures;
- other (2.4%).
The remaining sales (18.5%) are from financial services.
Net sales break down geographically as follows: Japan (32.9%), China (8.5%), Asia/Pacific (9.6%), the United States (23.9%), Europe (20.2%) and other (4.9%).