Around 40 executives at Sony Corp. and its group companies will forego their fiscal 2012 bonuses in a responsibility-taking gesture for the poor performance of its electronics business, company officials said Wednesday.
The decision signals that the mainstay electronics division failed to turn itself around despite restructuring measures that have cost 10,000 people their jobs at home and abroad and shuttered a factory in Gifu Prefecture.
Since the bonuses constitute 30 to 50 percent of their salaries, the move probably represents hundreds of millions of yen. The idea, proposed by Sony President Kazuo Hirai and the management, was approved by Sony's outside directors.
It will be the first time for leaders from Sony's corporate headquarters and its group companies to give up their bonuses in the same year, and the second consecutive year for its corporate officers to do so.
For the business year ended in March, Sony is expected to report a consolidated net profit of ¥40 billion on asset sales that should put it back in the black for the first time in five years.