Sony Corporation (NYSE:SNE) to let go office quarters to save money

The declining economy has been showing its effects on even the biggest of companies. Sony Corporation (ADR)(NYSE:SNE) too, has been suffering from low sales and market shares, and declining finances. The company recently decided to shut down work in one of the office buildings in Tokyo. This building was housing Sony workers who account for about 8 percent of the population of workers under the company in Japan. Sony Corporation, in order to deal with the declining economy, had decided to cut almost 4,000 jobs. The company will be restructuring itself, said Kazuo Hirai, the Chief Executive for Sony.

The building which will be shut down was built in 1998, and occupied by Sony from the very beginning. The building, called Shinagawa Technology Center is a 31-storey building, and about 4,800 members of the staff worked there, who will now have to be relocated elsewhere. The letting go of the Center was crucial for Sony, since this move will help the company save money, and use it more judicially. A realignment of the priorities and products which Sony will have to focus on will require some capital. Nippon Steel Kowa Real Estate as well as Sumitomo Life Insurance Co along with Obayashi Corp owns the building at Shinagawa.

The company will be letting go of manufacturing TV sets, since they are lacing losses in that area. The selling of the building will probably be done by September next year, and the company is planning to cut down its number of workers by 10,000, by the month of March, in 2013.

In order to save money, a fifth of the staff at the headquarters will probably be cut, and the lens-making factory in Gifu will also be shut down by the company. The staff moved from the Shinagawa building will be taken to facilities which are cheaper to maintain. The company has already successfully sold its chemical business. It was sold to a bank in September this year. The stocks for the company have fallen since the current Chief Executive, Hirai, took the lead. They have fallen by about 43 percent. The company will now be focusing more on gaming, and mobile devices, and it will be pushing into lucrative opportunities, such as the making of medical devices.