Kaz Hirai will be making 153 million yen, or $ 1.6 million in his first year as CEO of Sony Corp. This is a jump up from the 88 million yen he earned last financial year as the company's Executive Deputy President.
Although the numbers look good on paper, this actually comes from a very trying first year as CEO, as Hirai made tough decisions to stem the company's continuing losses. These included laying off 10,000 employees, selling two buildings and several segments, including its chemicals business. Fortunately for Hirai, this resulted in Sony's first full-year profit in five years, totalling 43 billion yen.
Last May, Hirai listed his 1st year accomplishments, including strong performance from film and financial services segments. However, he was unable to stem the continuing massive losses from the company's core electronics segment, which includes Playstation.
Hirai was one of 40 executives at Sony who gave up their annual bonuses to atone for the performance of the electronics business. His future plans to revive the business include cost cutting measures in their beleaguered TV business, and a larger focus on digital imaging, mobile and gaming.
More recently, Hirai has agreed to relate and discuss with the board a proposal by investor Dan Loeb to spinoff their entertainment business, to make that segment's profitability more transparent.
Sony's 2013 financial report also reveals a shrinking gaming segment for Playstation, with decreasing sales for current gen PS3 and still poor performance of the Vita.
In spite of Sony's continuing challenges, Playstation 4 is coming off a solid E3 showing, with their revelation of their used games policy winning them fan adoration, as expressed in the system's record breaking Amazon preorders. Hirai is definitely betting high on the PS4's success in the years to come.
