Sony to cut 10% of global workforce

Sony has made plans to cut between 15,000 and 20,000 workers, or around 10% of its global workforce of 160,000 people, by March 2006, according to a report in the Monday morning edition of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The plan is among measures the company is due to announce next week, said the report. Sony has said it will present its mid-term business plan at a corporate strategy meeting scheduled for Tuesday next week in Tokyo.

At the same time the company will also announce its decision to cease domestic production of cathode ray tubes in favor of sourcing those products from factories overseas including in the U.S. and China, said the newspaper.

Sony called the report speculation and restated that it will be announcing “restructuring and growth measures” on Oct. 28.

The consumer electronics maker surprised the industry and stock market in April when it announced a quarterly operating loss of ¥116.5 billion ($1.1 billion). In July the company announced its first quarter results, for the period from April to June, and said sales fell 6.9% and operating profit dropped by more than half from the same period a year earlier to ¥16.7 billion.