Stringer will remain chairman of the company until June,
when he will become chairman of the board of directors, a separate post that
will not be directly involved in company management, Sony spokeswoman Mami
Imada said. There are no plans to replace him in the chairman's role, she
added.
Sony announced the changes ahead of its earnings report
on Thursday, which is expected to forecast the company will post a net loss for
the fourth year in a row as its TV division bleeds red ink. Hirai will take
over on April 1.
The last year has been brutal for many Japanese
companies, hit by a strong yen that hurt exports, and two natural disasters —
the March earthquake in Japan and record floods in Thailand.
But Sony has also come under fire for losing the
innovative edge behind products like the Walkman and the PlayStation, and
ceding ground to rivals such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics as consumers
snapped up their iPhones, iPods and Galaxy gadgets.
The urbane and English-speaking Hirai, 51, will have to
plot a course to revitalize the electronics giant as consumers lose interest in
its products and gravitate instead towards smartphones and tablet PCs from
other brand names.
Sony's shares have lost nearly two-thirds of their value
since Welsh-born Stringer, who turns 70 later this month, took the helm as CEO
in 2005.
In contrast, Apple shares have galloped ahead more than
1,000 percent, while Samsung, a maker of smartphones, flat panels and computer
chips, is up more than 100 percent over the same period.
ANOINTED SUCCESSOR
Hirai was effectively anointed as Stringer's successor
last March when he was promoted to head Sony's consumer products and services
businesses, which produce the bulk of Sony's $85 billion in annual sales.
He made his name in the PlayStation video games division,
once a key profit driver for Sony that fell into the red for four consecutive
years until he took the reins and pulled it back into the black two years
ago.
"The path we must take is clear," he said in a
statement on Wednesday.
"To drive the growth of our core electronics
businesses — primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and games; to turn around
the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to
create new business domains."
Stringer, a former journalist who later ran U.S.
broadcaster CBS, was brought in as a rare foreign CEO at a top Japanese company
to shake things up and restore its innovative edge in consumer electronics.
Many analysts though see his major achievement as cost cutting.
Stringer's restructuring efforts included selling off TV
factories in Spain, Slovakia and Mexico and outsourcing more than half of its
production to other companies, including Hon Hai Precision Industry, the
contract electronics maker that also counts Apple as its key customer.
In recent months, Sony exited an LCD panel joint venture
with Samsung, which will allow it to procure screens for its TVs more
cheaply.
It also agreed to buy out Ericsson's half of their
smartphone venture for $1.5 billion to shore up its position in a market where
Apple and Samsung have become leaders.
Many of Japan's other electronics titans have also
stumbled in recent years. In the current reporting season, Nintendo and Sharp
Corp. both issued bigger-than-expected loss projections for the full year.
South Korean rivals such as Samsung have been
particularly aggressive in investment and blessed with favorable currency
movements, while Apple has stolen much of the innovative thunder that once
emanated from Japan.
Sony reports third-quarter earnings on Thursday, when it
is also due to brief the media on the management reshuffle.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S gave a
consensus forecast of just 8.8 billion yen ($115.41 million) in operating
profit for the key October-December quarter, when consumers spend heavily on
gadgets for year-end gift-giving, and 8.2 billion yen for the full financial
year to March.
