Business - Sony to cut 8,000 jobs, slash $1.1 billion in costs

Japan's Sony Corp said it will slash 8,000 jobs, scale back investments and pull out of unprofitable businesses as it aims to cut $1.1 billion in costs out of its struggling electronics operations.

The 8,000 job cuts comes to about 5 percent of its global electronics workforce of 160,000, but analysts were quick to question if the cuts were enough.

"The number sounds big, but this staff reduction won't be enough. Sony doesn't have any core businesses that generate stable profits," said Katsuhiko Mori, a fund manager at Daiwa SB Investments.

"After the workforce reduction, the next thing we want to see is what is going to be the business that will drive the company.

Sony, the maker of Bravia flat TVs and PlayStation 3 video game consoles, said in October when it more than halved its annual oeprating profit forecast that it would need to close some plants, reduce capital spending and lay off workers.

Sony said it would delay plans to boost output for liquid crystal display TVs in Slovakia, cut capital spending on semiconductors, and reduce the number of manufacturing sites by about 10 percent.

Through these and other measures, it aims to generate annual costs savings of about 100 billion yen by the end of the next financial year to March 2010, the company said in a statement.