Yoshida Kenichiro, the highest executive of Sony Group, has resigned to promote the company's push for decades and transform from home appliances brand to global entertainment company.
A 60 -year -old Totoki (60 years old) stated in a statement on Wednesday that he would work closely with Yoshida in the drive and take over in April as the highest executive officer. 65 -year -old Yoshida remains as chairman.
The top switch -up is only the eighth of the 78 -year history of Sony, which was established as an electronic shop in Tokyo in the wake of World War II. Before losing leads in recent decades, Sony has been a handful of symbolic inventions, such as Sony Walkman, which was introduced in 1979.
Over the past two years, Sony has begun to rebuild the famous Japanese technical companies as a great game and entertainment, in facing intensifying competition on devices such as computers and television from rivals in the United States and South Korea.
Yoshida took over the highest executive officer in 2018. This is 10 years after the company reported many years of loss and forced many unprofitable companies, including personal computers. Mr. Yoshida inherited from his predecessor, Kazuo Fly, from a company that no longer bleeds red ink. He tried to maintain the momentum.
While leading Yoshida's seven years of Sony, Japanese companies spent billions of dollars and built a huge empire of games, music and movies. These segments accounted for more than five -thirds of revenue in the last quarter of July to September.
“We have derived Sony's turn around,” said Yoshida, said Mika Nishimura, a senior analyst of Ocusan Securities in Tokyo. He told Sony that he focused on the business that produces repetitive revenue, such as PlayStation's subscription services, and has found a way to connect music, movies, and games.
In this fiscal year until March 31, Sony predicted $ 8.4 billion in operating income, which increased by more than 75 % from 2017 revenue before Yoshida took over. Sony's shares have been traded at the highest level for more than 20 years, supported by the recent strength of digital games and the weak circles of the circle.
Nevertheless, Sony is expected to face a big task at the next stage of Entertainment Push. Mr. Nishikata said he would dive into the global battle over content. So, Sony needs to confront something like Streaming Giant Netflix, which has a major market evaluation of Sony.
Sony has invested in new materials, but Nishimura said that he needs to push it even stronger. “The industry environment is changing, the content is consumed at such a fast pace, and the pressure of continuous hits is intense,” she said.
After graduating from Waseda University in Tokyo, Totoki, who joined Sony in 1987, has been working closely with Yoshida to strengthen its intellectual property empire since 2023.
Last year, Sony concluded a discussion with the aim of acquiring Paramount Global, the US owner of Nickelodeon, MTV, CBS, and Paramount Pictures. Sony ultimately opposed an independent studio to make a new bidding on the paramount after a contract to get the media giant.
In December, Sony states that it is planning to spend more than $ 300 million to increase the stock of Kadokawa, an animation including the popular action roll -playing game Eldenring and the developer of video games. Ta.
The announcement of Totoki's new role as a chief executive involved a gust of other management shifts revealed by Sony on Wednesday.
These include the appointment of Lin Tao, the leader of Sony's game unit, as the highest finance manager. Hideaki Nishino will be the highest executive of the Sony PlayStation unit, which was previously operated by two executives.
According to Daiwa Securities analyst, Ayaka Inomata, Sony has made a big progress, but it still has a wide range of electronics and hardware companies, and needs to be substantially derived more substantially. 。
“Considering that Totoki has been working closely with Yoshida for many years,” said Inomata.
Hisakouno has contributed to the report.
