Sony CEO to take up to a 50 percent pay cut

After having posted their fourth loss in five years, Sony’s CEO Kaz Hirai and other executives will all be taking a pay cut to ensure the company’s funds don’t get tight- the Wall Street Journal reports that they will all be foregoing their bonuses, which in some cases amounts to a pay cut of as much as 50%. This is a similar move to the one employed by Nintendo, when its President Satoru Iwata and other executives all also took pay cuts- once, after the 3DS’s initial failure, and once earlier this year, after the Wii U’s failure to catch on in the market.

That might sound like a lot, but it’s a pittance compared to the overall losses that Sony is currently taking. It might be easy to forget that, given the insane success the PS4 has enjoyed, but Sony as a whole is still a lumbering, sinking corporation, and this year, Sony is anticipated to have lost $1.27 billion. 

Apart from these measures, Kaz Hirai has also instituted other measures to make sure Sony returns to profitability soon. Earlier this year, Sony sold off its Vaio division that makes laptops and computer hardware, and also discussed trimming down and spinning off the loss making TV division.

Whether all of these result in a positive financial outlook for Sony in the coming year remains to be seen.