Sales 2022/23: ¥7,379.8 billion (€48.55 billion)

Overview

Sony Corporation is one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer electronics. A global corporation, one of the best-known international brands. Since the late 1980s, Sony has also been active in the media business, initially in the music and later in the film sector. We add together the sales figures for the divisions. Pictures, Music and Games.

General Information

Headquarters
1-7-1 Konan, Minato-ku
Tokyo 108-0075
Japan
Phone: 0081 3 67482111  
Internet: sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/

Branches of trade: Audio, film, television, video games (hardware, software), consumer electronics, financial services, semiconductors, computer hardware, mobile telephony
Legal form: Public limited company (since 1958)
Financial year: 01.04. – 31.03.
Founding year: 1946

Basic economic data (in billion ¥)

	2024*	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
group sales		13.021	11.540	9.922	8.999	8.260	8.666
Media revenue**		7.380	6.395	5.096	4.355	3.839	4.105
Profit		970,6	944	888	1.030	582	916
Share price (year-end, in US dollars)		94,68	76,28	126,40	101,10	69,08	49,21
Employees		110.000	108.900	110.000	109.700	111.700	114.400

* The financial year ends on March 31 (balance sheet date) of the following year, so the 2024 financial year ended on March 31, 2025.
** The categories “Games”, “Pictures” and “Music” are included in the calculation of media revenue.

Sales by division (in billion ¥)

	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018
Games		4.267,7	3.644,6	2.739,8	2.656,3	1.977,55	2.310,9
Music		1.619	1.380,6	1.116,9	939,9	849,9	807,5
Pictures		1.493,1	1.369,4	1.238,9	758,8	1.011,85	986,9

Executives and Directors

Management:

• Kenchiru Yoshida, Chairman, President & CEO
• Hiroki Totoki, Executive Deputy President, Chief Financial Officer
• Shigeki Ishizuka, Vice Chairman
• Toru Katsumoto, Executive Deputy President
• Terushi Shimizu, Senior Executive Vice President, Officer in charge of Imaging & Sensing Solutions Business, Representative Director, President and CEO, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation
• Rob Stringer, Officer in charge of Music Business (Global), Chairman, Sony Music Group, CEO, Sony Music Entertainment
• Anthony Vinciquerra, Officer in charge of Pictures Business, Chairman and CEO, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.
• Jim Ryan, Officer in charge of Game & Network Service Business, President and CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC, Representative Director and President, Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
• Shunsuke Muramatsu, Officer in charge of Music Business (Japan), President and Representative Director of the Board, CEO, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.
• Jon Platt, Officer in charge of Music Publishing (Global), Chairman and CEO, Sony Music Publishing
• Masashi Oka, President & CEO, Representative Director, Sony Financial Group Inc.
• Kimio Maki, Senior Executive Vice President, Officer in charge of Electronics Products & Solutions Business, Representative Director, President & CEO, Sony Corporation
• Shiro Kambe, Officer in charge of Legal, Compliance, Corporate Communications, Sustainability, and External Relations
• Kazushi Ambe, Officer in charge of Human Resources and General Affairs
• Tsuyoshi Kodera, Executive Vice President, Officer in charge of Digital Transformation Strategy, Information Systems, and Information Security
• Toshimoto Mitomo, Officer in charge of Intellectual Property and Business Incubation Platform, Sony Group China Representative, Senior General Manager, Startup Acceleration Division
• Hiroaki Kitano, Officer in charge of AI Collaboration, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc., Representative Director and CEO, Sony AI Inc.
• Natsuko Takei, Officer in charge of Legal, Compliance, and Privacy
  Senior General Manager, Legal Department
• Izumi Kawanishi, Officer in charge of AI Robotics Business, Senior General Manager, AI Robotics Business Group, Representative Director, President and CEO, Sony Mobility Inc.

Board of Directors:

• Kenichiro Yoshida
• Hiroki Totoki
• Shuzo Sumi, Chairman
• Tim Schaaff
• Toshiko Oka
• Sakie Akiyama
• Wendy Becker
• Yoshihiko Hatanaka
• Keiko Kishigami
• Joseph A. Kraft Jr.

History

In 1946, 25-year-old Akio Morita, heir to a prominent rice wine dynasty, and Masaru Ibuka, 13 years his senior, founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering). With products such as the first Japanese cassette recorder (1950) and the transistor radio "TR-55" (1955), the young company established itself in the new consumer electronics market. With an eye toward international expansion, Morita decided in 1958 to rename the company "Sony" (from the Latin "sonus," meaning sound). The new name was not only understandable and pronounceable worldwide, it also concealed Sony's origins. Japanese products were considered inferior in the West at the time.

From 1960 onwards, Sony made massive inroads into the US market, where the company soon sold half of its total production. The launch of the Trinitron color television in 1968 was followed by a decade of extensive growth, culminating in a truly traumatic defeat in the video format battle. The superior quality Sony Betamax standard was defeated by the less expensive VHS system of the Matsushita subsidiary JVC. Sony fell victim to its expensive development lead. The Betamax debacle forced Sony to rethink its approach. Morita promoted the diversification of the now globally producing company and achieved high profits thanks to its innovations in consumer electronics, such as the legendary Walkman in 1979 and the development of CD technology (in 1982, together with Philips). Later, the company moved into the production of software and media content, especially since the Betamax standard had failed, not least because Sony had been unable to offer attractive video films.

In 1988, Sony acquired CBS Records, the world's largest record company at the time (founded in 1887 as Columbia Records), for two billion US dollars. Soon, the company considered purchasing a Hollywood studio as the ultimate consequence of its strategy to assert itself in the market for globally exploitable, US-influenced popular content. Through the mediation of "super agent" Michael Ovitz, then managing director of the talent agency CAA, the first acquisition of a long-established major by a Japanese company took place in 1989. For around five billion dollars, Sony bought the major-film company Columbia, founded in 1919 by the brothers Jack and Harry Cohn, together with Joe Brandt. Major successes included: "It Happened One Night" (1934), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), "Gilda" (1946), "From Here to Eternity" (1952), "Easy Rider" (1969), and "Taxi Driver" (1976). Since the purchase of Columbia, Sony, with Sony Pictures Entertainment, has been one of the Big Five the film industry.

However, the first years in Hollywood turned into a fiasco. Peter Guber and Jon Peters, second-rate producers who had only one successful film ("Batman") to their name, were appointed studio heads of Columbia/TriStar. But Guber and Peters attracted negative attention with confusing personnel policies, nepotism, and the misappropriation of Sony's millions for private extravagances. The transfer fees and severance payments alone, caused by the constantly revolving personnel carousel, cost Sony at least two billion dollars. The mismanagement led to box office failures. Columbia and TriStar suffered a string of expensive bankruptcies. In 1994, Sony incurred one of the highest losses in Japanese corporate history, at three billion dollars, which led some to call "reparations for Pearl Harbor." After suffering a stroke, the 73-year-old Sony founder, Morita, retired from the company in 1994. In almost 50 years, he had created a global corporation and one of the most famous international brands.

Norio Ohga succeeded Morita as CEO, and Nobuyuki Idei became the new Sony president. The latter focused primarily on the film division. He dismissed the hapless managers of Sony Pictures Entertainment and appointed the experienced John Calley as chairman of Sony Studios in November 1996. Sony Pictures soon returned to profitability.

In June 1999, Nobuyuki Idei took over as Sony CEO. He reformed the corporate structure to prepare Sony for the digital age. "Ibuka was a transistor kid," said Idei, "Morita was a Walkman kid, and Ohga was a CD kid. And we will digital dream kids The appointment of Howard Stringer as CEO of the entire group in March 2005 amounted to an internal revolution within Sony. For the first time, the giant corporation was not headed by a Japanese technology specialist.

Stringer was successful. As head of Sony Corporation of America, he managed to transform the volatile film segment into a reliable profit generator. Stringer's "low-key management style" (Economist) and his knowledge of the entertainment industry likely helped him greatly in restructuring the cinema division. Stringer also owed his rise to his consistent personnel policy. He fired the flamboyant US music boss Tommy Mottola and replaced him with cost-cutting Andrew Lack, who prepared the division for the merger with BMG.

Towards the end of Stringer's tenure, however, Sony found itself in trouble again. The company was overtaken by competitors from the US and its Asian neighbors. Today, Apple dominates the market for music players and smartphones. In the TV business, Sony was largely overtaken by South Korean companies like Samsung and LG. Only with the PlayStation was the Walkman's success in the 1970s and 1980s transferred into the digital age.

It began with an iconic moment. On May 10, 1995, Sony's US CEO Steve Race took the stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center (during the E3 gaming trade fair). Journalists were expecting details about the US launch of Sony's first console, the PlayStation. But all they got from Race was arguably the shortest press conference in gaming history: three words: "Two Ninety Nine." They got the competitive price of $299, and Steve Race disappeared. And Sony sold over 100 million consoles thanks to affordable hardware and strong games. Nintendo, then the market leader for over ten years, was soon overtaken. The PlayStation became synonymous with gaming consoles.

The PlayStation was originally developed in the early 1990s together with Nintendo (as add-on This project failed, however, and in 1994, Sony launched the first PlayStation independently. It became a huge success, soon overtaking Nintendo and taking over 61 percent of the global console market. The PlayStation 2 was released in 2000, followed by the PlayStation 3 in 2006. In November 2013, Sony launched the PlayStation 4, and in 2020, the PS5. Incidentally, Sony exited the computer business (with the Vaio brand) in 2014 due to weak sales; it was sold to the Japan Industrial Partners fund.                   

In the 1990s, Sony dominated living rooms and children's bedrooms – only to later be overtaken in the market. Again, it all began with a historic press conference. On October 23, 2001, Apple CEO Steve Jobs walked onto the stage with an inconspicuous device: "That's iPod." Again, just three words that transformed another industry in the years that followed. This time, they targeted Sony. The Walkman and the CD, two Sony inventions, soon became obsolete models. And the Japanese company was not involved in the development of the MP3 digital music format.

But the PlayStation remained a guarantee of success. In 2016, its share of Sony's total sales was 16 percent, and in 2018, it was 20 percent. And then the PlayStation brought Sony safe through the Corona crisisIn the first half of 2020, revenue in the games division jumped by almost a third, and operating profit rose from €600 million to almost €1 billion. In contrast, revenue in the electronics division plummeted by 31 percent. More than half of the group's total revenue soon came from the PlayStation. "Sony is dependent on its successful console."

Developments in the music sector: In March 2016, Sony acquired the remaining 50 percent of Sony/ATV Music Publishing (the company that manages the rights to artists such as The Beatles and Elvis Presley) for $750 million. And in May 2018, Sony announced the acquisition of an additional 60 percent of EMI for $2.3 billion, increasing Sony's stake from 30 percent to 90 percent.

On September 17, 2019, boerse.ARD.de reported: "Sony defies activist investor." "Corporate bogeyman" Daniel Loeb and his hedge fund Third Point were demanding a spin-off of Sony's chip division. This was the second attempt. Six years ago, when Loeb had acquired a roughly seven percent stake in Sony, he had already pushed for a sale of the film studio. Sony CEO Hirai said no at the time, and Loeb sold his Sony stake at a profit. Now, in 2019, Loeb set his sights on the chip division, invested around $1.5 billion in Sony, and was rebuffed once again. This time, the new CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, had to deal with Loeb. Yoshida: "Keeping the chip division is the best long-term strategy to increase the company's value."

In mid-May 2019, Reuters announced: "AI, streaming, and image sensors: Microsoft and Sony join forces." Sony and Microsoft, technically rivals as manufacturers of the two competing game consoles PlayStation and Xbox, wanted to join forces in a strategic partnership and work together on cloud applications, as well as cooperate in the areas of AI and game streaming. This would strengthen their position, especially in the competition with Amazon. Amazon, which grew up as an online retailer, is now the market leader in the cloud business and recently also entered the games market.

management

Kazuo Hirai was Sony's CEO from 2012 to 2018. Under his "One Sony" strategy, the company was streamlined, and around 15,000 employees were laid off. Hirai had previously successfully led Sony's video game division and was considered the mastermind behind the PlayStation's global success. He initially left the film and music divisions to experienced manager Michael Lynton. However, after the sale of various electronics divisions and the PR disaster triggered by the presumably North Korean hack of Sony Pictures emails, Hirai realized the importance of Sony's media business to the company. In response to the ongoing crisis, in May 2014 he ordered that he and other top managers repay bonuses. This roughly halved the annual salary of the executive team – a unique event in the world of international media corporations.

Hirai's successor as CEO is Kenichiro Yoshida, previously Sony's CFO for more than three decades and co-responsible for Sony's return to record profits. His plan, as he stated upon taking over the business in April 2018, is to switch Sony, as an established company, into startup mode, so to speak, in order to "open up markets outside of the core businesses" (mobility, robotics, healthcare, artificial intelligence). Regarding user behavior in the entertainment industry, which is "increasingly moving toward a subscription business," he added: Sony already has a community of interest with around 110 million monthly active users (as of the end of March 2021) through its PlayStation Network entertainment platform. The company is a leader in the gaming scene, with revenue of 2,740 billion yen in 2021 (around 20 billion euros).

At the same time, Sony must also address gaming addiction. "We must take it seriously and take countermeasures," Yoshida said. Sony has created a guide for appropriate age limits for users of gaming software. Parents can also limit the amount of time a child can play on the PlayStation.

Business areas (media)

Games & Network Services
Sony Interactive Entertainment has been producing, developing, marketing, selling, and distributing the PlayStation game console since 1994. Currently, the PS5 is in its fifth generation since 2020 (7.8 million PS5 consoles had been sold by the end of March 2021. Its predecessor, the PS4, sold 115 million units by the end of December 2020). The PlayStation has become synonymous with game consoles and a part of pop culture. Sony also operates various game development studios in Japan, the US, and Europe, including Naughty Dog, Team Gravity, Polyphony Digital, Bend Studio, and Sucker Punch Productions.

Music
Sony Music Entertainment (SME, New York) is one of the world's three largest major labels, alongside Universal Music Group (currently ranked 27th in the IfM rankings) and Warner Music (part of Access Industries, ranked 39th). SME was operated as a joint venture with Bertelsmann (Sony BMG) from 2004 to 2008, before Sony acquired BMG Music completely for €600 million. Sony Music owns labels such as Ariola, Arista, Columbia, Epic, RCA, Four Music, and Sony Classical and holds the exploitation rights of artists such as AC/DC, Backstreet Boys, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Johnny Cash, Justin Timberlake, Oasis, Van Morrison, and many more. In November 2011, Sony Music acquired the music publishing division of its former competitor EMI for $2.2 billion (EMI's recorded music division went to Universal). Regulators in Europe and the US approved the deal in June 2012.

Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., with its subsidiaries (the Hollywood studios Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, and TriStar Pictures, as well as Sony Pictures Television), operates worldwide and produces the entire spectrum: scripted and unscripted formats, "light entertainment," game shows, animation, TV movies, and miniseries. It is part of the so-called "Majors," the five largest film companies in the USA. Other majors include Universal Pictures (part of Comcast), Walt Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount Global.

Current developments

Compared to the smartphone market, for example, the production cycle for game consoles is significantly slower. Sony officially introduced the predecessor of the current PlayStation, the PlayStation 4, in February 2013. The PS5 then launched on the European market in November 2020. However, "Business Insider" wrote on November 21, 2020: "How Sony fought its way out of its deepest crisis with the PlayStation – and fell into a dangerous dependency."

But now Sony is once again in danger of being overtaken by technological developments. This time, it's its long-time rival Microsoft, which is threatening to revolutionize the video game market with massive investments in the cloud and subscription services. "Cloud gaming is definitely a trend that will develop alongside the console and PC markets," says gaming expert Niklas Wilke, "but it will take some time before you can play graphics-intensive games truly smoothly via the cloud." To avoid being overtaken by developments again, Sony plans to experiment with the Azure cloud in the future. Incidentally, it belongs to Microsoft.

CEO Yoshida led the company through a series of acquisitions and investments, including the $2.3 billion purchase of EMI Music Publishing and a $200 million stake in Epic Games. Yoshida has pledged that Sony will spend $18 billion by 2024 to expand and strengthen its presence in games and anime. And Sony Pictures—the only Hollywood major without its own streaming service—signed extensive licensing agreements with Netflix and Disney in April 2021.

literature

Hiroko Tabuchi: How the Tech Parade Passed Sony By (New York Times, April 14, 2012)
John Nathan: Sony: The Private Life. Boston, 1999