With Television Plant At Death’s Door, Sony Hosts Job Fair

John Hamman (pictured) joined fellow workers at a job fair Friday at the Sony Technology Center-Pittsburgh plant in East Huntingdon — the sprawling US television assembly plant that will close in April 2010. Hamman, 51, an electronic technician who has worked at Sony for 14 years, said there are jobs available for workers with his skills. He has the advantage of time over some Sony workers because he anticipates his job will not be eliminated until this fall.

“The thing is, how much of a pay cut (can you take). You don’t want to start out at the bottom again,” said Hamman, who wants to work at Sony as long as he can to earn severance pay.

Hamman and more than 200 Sony workers gathered yesterday to gather information about jobs and opportunities for additional education. The event featured about 40 employers with jobs in professional and manufacturing sectors, and several schools and training institutes. The job fair gave Sony workers a chance to line up another career before their current one is finished. About 105 employees with television assembly duties will be laid off in a first round of cuts in March. Another 35 are scheduled for layoff in June. About 90 were able to be transferred to other jobs refurbishing television sets, said Sony spokesman Michael Koff.

The plant closing is part of a global downsizing by Sony Corp., which will cut its work force by about 8,000. Closing the Sony Technology Center in Westmoreland County will eliminate about 560 jobs. Read more of this article at pittsburghlive.com.

Sony Close To Choosing An Outsourcing Partner In India

India’s largest software exporter TCS is leading the race to win an outsourcing contract worth $60-100 million from Sony, the Japanese electronics giant struggling under huge losses and a high cost operating structure. While Economic Times could not independently verify the details of this contract, at least two people familiar with the development confirmed that Sony is evaluating vendors. When contacted on Thursday, a TCS spokesperson said the company would not comment on specific customer contracts yet to be awarded.

“As part of its attempts to reduce cost of managing IT operations, Sony is discussing a contract to manage its desktops and servers over 3-5 years,” a person familiar with the discussions told ET on condition of anonymity.

This is the first in a series of IT contracts—valued at over $250 million—to be awarded by the world’s second-largest electronics maker over the next two years. With this, Sony joins other global biggies like Citi, GE, BT and BoA, which are expected to award around $4-billion worth of new outsourcing contracts this year.

TCS is seen as a frontrunner because of its existing relationship with the electronics maker. “Sony also works with Satyam for SAP development and maintenance. However, current developments at the scandal-hit company are not going to help it win new projects,” said a senior executive at a top Indian tech firm requesting anonymity.

Tokyo-based Sony announced last week that the company would make savings of over $2 billion by reducing operational costs at its electronics unit, apart from undertaking several restructuring measures, including outsourcing. Customers such as Sony, with around $40 million offshore IT spend, are likely to outsource newer projects of infrastructure management and back-office work, as they derive cost benefits from their ongoing engagements.

Sony Delays Joint LCD Venture With Sharp Till 2010

In February 2008, Sony and Sharp signed a non-binding memorandum of intent regarding the establishment of a joint venture to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and LCD modules using the world’s first 10th generation mother glass substrates, and since then the two companies have been negotiating to enter into legally binding joint venture documentation.

Faced with changes in the world economy, today Sharp and Sony amended and extended the non-binding MOI to confirm their mutual intent to postpone the targeted establishment of a joint venture until March 2010, approximately one year later than originally scheduled. Sharp and Sony will, through continued discussions of how the two companies can best deploy their resources and expertise, continue to negotiate in good faith and have set June 30, 2009 as the target date by which to enter into a definitive agreement to establish a joint venture that will be mutually beneficial for both companies.

Sharp plans to start operating its new LCD panel factory in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture (currently under construction) by March 2010 as originally scheduled.

Sony Q3 FY08 Results Absolutely Devastating

Sony said Thursday its net profit plunged 95 percent in the October-December quarter, as the holiday shopping season provided no respite for the struggling electronics giant and tepid sales of TVs, digital cameras and cell phones hit its bottom line. The Japanese manufacturing icon said its usually dependable electronics division posted its first-ever operating loss in the fiscal third quarter. Look at Sony’s Q3 FY08 results presentation here.

“From the second half of September last year, there has been a sudden deterioration in the economy, and with the effects of foreign exchange it has had severe consequences on our business,” Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda said.

Sony Corp. said its net profit shriveled to 10.4 billion yen ($115.6 million) in the third quarter from 200.2 billion yen a year earlier. Revenue fell 25 percent to 2.15 trillion yen from 2.86 trillion yen. The quarter includes the year’s peak shopping season and is usually a big one for its core electronics division, which generates over half of its total revenues with well-known products like Bravia TVs, Cyber-shot digital cameras and Vaio computers.

But sales of such products fell nearly across the board as consumers held back, and Sony’s electronics division posted an operating loss of 15.9 billion yen, versus a 200.6 billion yen profit a year earlier. The company has repeatedly warned of its troubled finances over the past few weeks, and the dismal numbers were in line with analysts’ forecasts. But many said the weakness in electronics was a troubling sign, as the division has long been a source of steady profits, even as other areas struggled.

David Gibson, an analyst at Macquarie in Tokyo, pointed to a buildup in Sony’s inventories as it failed to move its products.

“TVs really dragged them down during the period,” he said.

The poor showing in electronics caused Sony’s operating profit, which is generally seen as the best indication of a company’s pure business performance but excludes taxes and other items, to fall to a 18 billion yen loss during the quarter. Sony generates nearly 80 percent of its sales abroad, making it vulnerable to a strong yen, which cuts into its profits from overseas. The dollar has hovered near 90 yen in recent months after rising as high as 117 yen last year. So far this fiscal year foreign exchange movements have taken about 216 billion yen from Sony’s operating income, the company said.

Chief Executive Howard Stringer told reporters last week that he had not gone far enough with cut costs and would work harder to combine the company’s diverse businesses, which also include its movie division and PlayStation game console business.

Sony Ericsson Slimness Comes in Green

Well look at this beauty incarnated in Sony Ericsson Cybershot S001 model. The screen you see on it is a 3.3″ 854 x 480 resolution OLED display. SE also gifted this cell phone with 8.1-megapixel autofocus EXMOR CMOS sensor with LED flash paired with Smile Shutter, Face Recognition, Image Stabilization and auto exposure/white balance (as well as sensitivities up to a particularly impressive ISO1600). Quite a phone huh? Awww…you want one? Well, get on that next flight to Japan and look for the KDDI as they are the only provider in that country offering this phone. Oh yea, almost forgot to mention, it also supports 1Seg TV tuner so you can catch your fave Ellen Show Nippon TV broadcast.

Source

Sony Wireless Link Is In Da House

I have been in search of a device(s) that would allow me to stream HD content wirelessly from one room to another, as I have only one HD Dish receiver and 3 HDTVs sitting in different rooms. I have lost all my hope for Sony USA to bring the Locationfree wireless device, something like this one (LF-W1HD) introduced early last year in Japan.

LF-W1HD looked promising but it was still not all HD streamer solution, as the receiver was still outputting in SD.
Anyways, Sony recently joined the WHDI headed by AMIMON. A key ingredient of WHDI technology is a revolutionary video-modem that operates in the 5GHz unlicensed band to enable robust wireless delivery of uncompressed HD video (including 1080p). WHDI allows secure, encrypted HD video delivery through multiple rooms and other potential signal obstructions, such as people and furniture, while maintaining superb quality and robustness with less than one-millisecond latency.
Forth came their first product – Bravia Wireless Link DMX-WL1 that consists of a Transmitter and a Receiver. Interestingly enough it was not branded under Locationfree trade mark (I noticed a number of similarities in technology and specs) but under Bravia enabled DMeX devices (though the Wireless Link does not need to be connected at all by the propriety DMeX connection). Another interesting fact is that this device is only available in the US, while in Europe and Asia it has been directly integrated in the TV sets themselves. For example, the beautiful slim model KDL-40ZX1 has the receiver integrated inside and only comes with the wireless transmitter. The US model KLV-40ZX1 was stripped of that feature and asks the buyer to pick up the DMX-WL1 as an accessory to expand its features and capabilities. In Europe we noticed two models – EX and ZX series that have a wireless media receiver bundled.

Back to my original post now, the DMX-WL1 comes as a bundle of a receiver and a transmitter. The transmitter (aka DMX-WL1T) allows you to connect up to 5 HD sources (4 HDMI and 1 Component), has S/PDIF Output, and 3 IR blaster terminals, supplied by a bunch of dual IR blaster cables, HDMI cable, stands and mounting brackets. The receiver (aka DMX-WL1R) can be mounted on the back of the compatible Bravia TV or on a wall, or if you wish sit on its on or vertically. Also included is a hybrid remote control (IR/RF).
As usual Sony’s hardware looked great and slick (some of their products deserve to be in a techy beauty contest) and it was nice to notice a Made in Japan sticker on both units.

First Impressions:

The initial set up was not that bad, though for some reason it prompted to activate the remote control for further use. The remote itself can handle multiple commands for various devices that you may connect to the transmitter (from Play, FF to Rec controls). I have experienced a few pairing issues as I was testing the wireless link with 4 different Sony TVs (KDX-46Q005, TAV-L1, XEL-1 and KLV-30XBR900), they are all in different rooms and therefore in different environments. I was able to fix the pairing glitch by disconnecting the power from the transmitter. I have also noticed that the sound would disappear every now and then for like 2 seconds. I hope Sony engineers would look into that glitch as it can be pretty annoying. Lip syncing was not an issue at all.

I was pleasantly surprised to experience a very nice picture quality. The units support 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i formats. If the receiver and transmitter are located within its permissible range (up to 65 feet), the transmission of HD works flawlessly; picture degradation occurs if the units have significant obstacles. The Link Level LEDs on the transmitter are the indicators of the quality of the wireless signal between the receiver and the transmitter units (when all 3 are lit, it means the you are good).

The system has four 5.2GHz band channels and you can select your preferred wireless channel from ch 36, 40, 44 or 48 manually in case you are using Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11 a/n network.

I intend to use it with my PS3 so I could be in the same room with my family, while they enjoy using the Qualia 005 TV, I will be streaming content from PS3 to Sony’s XEL-1 OLED TV – sort of a portable solution to playing games and not having to drag PS3 to another room. Real time transmission for a true gaming experience proved to be right, I was amazed to see no lag or delay at all as I used the wireless PS3 controller and it was kind of weird to have your PS3 not directly connected to the TV. Some of you may think why on earth do you want to play on an 11 inch TV and my answer to you is the experience and picture quality of OLED TV is mind blowing and one has to physically see and experience it to fully understand what I mean. Games look so good and life-like I can only imagine how awesome it would be to have a 3-D 55 inch OLED TV sometime in 2015. And here is an idea for Sony (and they can buy it from me if they wish), those video glasses you showcased at CES, make them wirelessly connect to your future AV devices for a real true entertainment. You just put them on and submerge yourself to virtual reality fun.

I will be testing this more in the coming days, so stay tuned for an update within this article.
Check out the unboxing of the Sony DMX-WL1 below.

Transmitter Connected to the PS3

LED Indicators

Receiver Connected to XEL-1

Sony Vaio P Wallpaper

Have you seen those sexy pictures for the Vaio P floating around? Well, I found two high resolution pictures that Sony Japan used for the Vaio P to show off it could fit in a pocket, which started an internet firestorm as to if it could actually fit in a pocket or not. I also found a couple of good high resolution images of all the colors. Enjoy these wallpapers (click on image for larger size).

Sony Refreshes G Series VAIO Laptops

Sony has finally announced it will update the Vaio G series with four new models to replace the the third-generation G3 range. All four share a 12.1-inch 1024×768 max resolution LCD – we feel that is a little low for 2009. The entry-level model features a Centrino 2-era, ultra-low voltage 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU; it also comes with 2GB of RAM, 120GB hard drive and Wi-Fi. A mid-range model receives a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo chip and a 64GB solid state drive.

The remaining two customizable packages include both have the 1.4GHz chip, though differ as one has a 120GB hard drive and DVD drive, while the other trades the optical drive for a larger, 160GB hard drive. All G5′s are preloaded with Windows Vista, with the option to downgrade to Windows XP Professional.

Sony has made sure the updated G series can take a pounding, as their chassis are reinforced with carbon fiber while the display’s surface has a coating that can withstand scratches from a 5H pencil. Sony also spilled six ounces of water onto a G series, and after the appropriate amount of time to dry, the laptop still worked flawlessly. In other tests, Sony reportedly dropped the laptop 26 times from various distances (several feet and below) and the laptop still functioned. Watch video of the stress tests at Sony JP (unfortunately, I couldn’t get video to work for me).

There are now three USB ports instead of just one, and other connections include a VGA output, SDHC/MMC/Memory Stick PRO/Duo slot and a fingerprint sensor. Battery life is rated at 12 hours for the hard drive models or 13 for the solid-state drive, and there is a lightweight power cell offered that will allow for 5.5 hours of operation.

The notebooks will be released on February 7th and 9th, with prices starting at $1,960 and topping out at $2,240. Thanks, Electronista. Information also available at AV Watch, and Sony JP.

Pink Panther 2′s Paw a Prize Instant Win Giveaway

The “PAW A PRIZE INSTANT WIN GAME“  ends at 3:00 p.m. PT on 2/10/09 or when the last prize is awarded, whichever occurs first . The Game promotes the movie PINK PANTHER 2. The sponsor of the Game is Columbia TriStar Marketing Group, Inc.

During the Game Period, eligible individuals interested in participating in the Game, may play the Game by: (i) logging onto the “Game Site” and providing their first and last name, street address (no P.O. boxes), city, state, zip code, daytime telephone number (including area code), date of birth, gender, and e-mail address

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME:

ONLY one (1) GAME PLAY per PERSON/E-MAIL ADDRESS PER DAY WILL BE ACCEPTED. ANY ATTEMPTED GAME PLAYS IN EXCESS OF THAT LIMIT SHALL BE DEEMED VOID.

The Game Site’s database clock will be the official timekeeper for this Game.

GAME PRIZES:

PINK PANTHER BRACELET PRIZE (Sixty-five Pink Panther Bracelet Prizes are available to be awarded in this Game): Each Pink Panther Bracelet Prize consists of one (1) pink and silver Pink Panther Bracelet. The approximate retail value (“ARV”) of each Pink Panther Bracelet Prize is $90.00.

FLEUROP ROSE-BOUQUET-AND-CANDY PRIZE (Fifty Fleurop Rose-Bouquet-and-Candy Prizes are available to be awarded in this Game): Each Fleurop Rose-Bouquet-and-Candy Prize consists of one (1) rose bouquet with vase plus an assortment of chocolate candy. The total ARV of each Fleurop Rose Bouquet and Candy Prize is $60.00.

$50 SONY STYLE GIFT CARD PRIZE (Sixteen $50 Sony Style Gift Card Prizes are available to be awarded in this Game): Each $50 Sony Style Gift Card consists of one (1) $50 Sony Style Gift Card subject to all redemption terms and conditions available at www.sonystyle.com.

SWEET ‘N LOW BARREL BAG PRIZE (Fifty Sweet ‘N Low Barrel Bag Prizes are available to be awarded in this Game): Each Sweet ‘N Low Barrel Bag Prize consists of one (1) Sweet ‘N Low Barrel Bag. The ARV of each Sweet ‘N Low Barrel Bag Prize is $9.95.

The total ARV of all prizes available to be awarded in the Game is $10,147.50. Odds of winning a prize in the Game depend on the number of eligible Game Plays received and the timing of such Game Plays.

Sony Insider Interviews Rick Clancy, Part 2

Late last year we had the opportunity to talk to Rick Clancy, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications of Sony, and ask him several questions you guys submitted to us via our “What Do You Want To Ask Sony?” post. The dialog lasted a while, and you can catch up on the interview by reading Part 1 of Sony Insider’s interview with Rick Clancy. This is the second part of a three part series.

Rick Clancy: Certainly alot of effort has gone into development of the Playstation Network. Initially, of course, as a service with the Playstation 3 console and experience. Certainly the vision is for that to extend like a tee if you will across other devices in the Sony family.

Sony Insider [Christopher]: Wow that’s great, really fantastic news. I’ve got a Playstation 3, and when I use the store, and I’ve used others, and honestly it’s one of the best interfaces I’ve used for purchasing movies. It has clear lists of thumbnails for movies; you can search, and everything looks crisp and sharp. The previews, whilst not in HD, are still high quality; a very quick interface, and very smooth. It definitely feels, at least as a consumer as I use it, that this could be something much greater and obviously more unified. That’s really fantastic to know that Sony is moving in that direction. I believe that the consumer already identifying the disconnect where there is obviously multiple stores under the Sony wing. ..that are catering to their own areas, but are dying to be unified.

Rick Clancy: Taking a step back again to the broader question, using our competitive advantages, I believe you are seeing Sony being much more nimble in respect to looking for opportunities to leverage one part of the Sony family along with another part. This was certainly something that came into play with the company’s global efforts in the Blu-ray disc format battle. Eventually, it came to an end 11 or so months ago around CES of last year and you saw the company pull together across operations in Electronics, Playstation, movies – globally behind this. I’m sure it had a lot to do with the success we had with getting to the point we’re at now.

Now the challenge (and we’re still working together with others in the Sony family) is making Blu-ray successful force in the marketplace. We see it in other promotional avenues – if you go to a SonyStyle store, you’ll not only see a lot of electronics products, but you’ll see an awful lot of the entertainment assets that Sony can bring to the table, whether it be movies, music videos, or movie trailers. We explored merchandising other aspects of the Sony family – including the latest James Bond Movie. We were very active with placing Sony products in these movies. Other than that, the movie becomes something of a merchandising campaign that involves Sony Style stores and retail. Even products designed with James Bond series – like a Vaio, camera, etc.

Sony Insider [Stan]: I always look forward to prodcut placement in Sony movies.

Rick Clancy: Yeah -

Sony Insider [Stan]: I can always recognize the products.

Rick Clancy: At CES you’ll notice a strong representation across the Sony family. Of course, it is a consumer electronics show and electronics will be prominent and there will be some exciting innovations and announcements in that regard. You can bet it will be a very different kind of keynote than you’ll get with Samsung, Panasonic, or even Apple for that matter.

Sony Insider [Stan]: Talking about announcements, is Sony looking for a having speak from a younger generation, or someone who has really loved and adored working for Sony speak for them? Whenever we see presentations (online via Sony, Youtube, etc), you always see someone who works for Sony, but whenever they present something, like a new product, they’re not excited about it. You see the person go through the specifications, and the product can do this and that, but we don’t see the sparkle that would bring more hype and joy into consumers..

Rick Clancy: Are you talking about presentations that you’ve seen from Japan, or in the US, or..?

Sony Insider [Stan]: Pretty much everywhere. I’ve seen a few in Europe that were on the better side such as IFA. Pretty much across the Sony platform, but you see boring presentations..

Rick Clancy: Some people aren’t as comfortable as giving presentations, and they’re trained as engineers, and not as performers.. During CES 2008 at a press conference during the eve of the show, we announced a variety of initiatives and new products, but we saved what we thought was the best for last. We surprised the audience by asking Sir Howard to come up and join us during the press conference; Howard unveiled the OLED TV, which kind of popped up on pedestals out from below the stage and came out with smoke, lights, music, and stuff like that (laughs)..

Certainly we’re making that effort, and it makes sense, and you’ll see that at CES 2009. That’s a good point though, we can always do more to bring more attention to new products and innovations, but put them in a perspective that sort of shows the enthusiasm and excitement and amazement around these products.

Sony Insider [Christopher]: It’s interesting Stan said hype – the hype machine. Sony is obviously aware of the hype machine, and that exists on the Internet, and that’s through product leaks, FCC notices, inside sources, etc. It seems like instead of in the past, Sony would be a little turned off or get the lawyers ready for people who leak product information – it seems like now that Sony doesn’t hound people down on the Internet. In my time of ATRACLife and even on Sony Insider, we would bring product leaks, especially with many Walkmans, for several years. We would bring that information first, and Sony would release it later. It seems like Sony is really cognizant of these blogs and supports them.

Rick Clancy: Certainly social networking has become more important to us. We were shooting this new global television commercial, for the next generation of Bravia televisions. One of the big features is the 240hz Motionflow technology which is aimed at particular keeping images real and sharp that are fast moving like in sports, action scenes, etc. We worked with an ad agency in Europe and created a Bravia-drome – a moving picture thing that spins around and around. Sony had some journalists, but mostly bloggers and social media types to see this thing. That was very much by design, and there was a certain amount of buzz out there. It is a visual and pictorial experience. We are thinking more and more that way.

You mentioned the FCC; they put out these reports all the time as new products or technologies are destined for the market in this country from overseas. That’s part of the reality of what we have to deal with, so we’re doing the best to do just that.

Sony Insider [Christopher]: It’s good to see that Sony isn’t making people take this information down, and not saying don’t read this, and being quiet and letting the people develop their own interest, which I believe is brilliant.

Rick Clancy: We’re experimenting. We’re trying new things. The interesting thing is that there are now more opportunities, and it’s the basic necessity to communicate and share information directly with the consumers for the public without the filters. Without the press putting their own perspective on things – while you can always create an advertisement put on or television commercial, you don’t know if anyone is watching or listening. To get engaged somehow, whether its social media or directly.
We did this promotion for the Sony Reader, you might have seen it on my blog. We had this guy in a window, on 5th avenue in New York, reading. It was an effort to get people to see what this thing is all about, and try to touch it, and try it out for themselves. We find with certain products, if people have an experience with it, they will be much more inclined to get enthusiastic about it and ultimately purchase it.

Sony Insider [Christopher]: The next question we received is similar to the last one, in a certain sense, in a unity sense. “Sony has a lot of strong brands, like PlayStation, Walkman, Bravia, etc. Do they think they make enough use of the fact that they are all related, that they are all Sony? Do they think the general public related them to Sony?”

Rick Clancy: Well, on the last question first – I think the general public does relate them by and large to Sony – that relationship to Sony makes those sub brands so strong. To the first question, I would say that this person has hit on something; it’s the strength of Sony that’s most critical. The strength of Sony resonates with consumers around the world, certainly in the US, where Sony has consistently been ranked for many years number one (or at least within the top 3) best brands in America, which is really phenomenal considering the company is based outside of America. I am very much in the camp that these sub brands are fine, and they have value, but the principal value is in the master brand of Sony itself.

Sony Insider [Christopher]: This leads into the next question – which was a hot topic not that long ago during the summer of 2008. The world was obviously hemorrhaging with the financial markets, and even Jim Cramer, a very popular stock analyst and financial analyst that some people agree and disagree with called for this. Very unusual, that usually doesn’t happen often through the worlds of prominent media figures – What about rumors about splitting up Sony into parts?

Rick Clancy: A few years ago, a part of Howard Stringer’s and Dr. Ryoji Chubachi’s initiatives after they became the CEO and President of the company globally, they took some initiatives to discontinue or sell off certain businesses that were not deemed to be strategic in terms of Sony’s global strength and propelling it to greater heights. You saw that with some businesses that are not obvious to people in the US – like restaurants, a trading company, and there are a couple of others. With that said, there are other areas that are very important to Sony aside from electronics which are fundamental and core – so too is entertainment – music, movies, video gaming.

I remember the first CES Howard Stringer was at when he said something along the lines like – and I’m paraphrasing – “New technology and electronics hardware is rubbish” were his words, “..without compelling and exciting entertainment content.”

The company sees merit in maintaining and building and having even more interaction between the different parts that make Sony such a global entertainment powerhouse. When you step back and look at it as I do from the electronics business perspective, it’s one of the things that make Sony stand out relative to our competition; Samsung, Panasonic, Apple, HP, Dell – Sony is unique, where it has this breadth of not only electronic products and technology, but these entertainment properties. It’s so cool that we can have planning sessions and product development meetings with colleagues at Sony Pictures, in the movie business, in the television business, in the home entertainment and package media business. We can talk to people involved with digital cinema – we can ask what is the future of movie-going going to be like? It’s just amazing.

The whole video game area, and what’s that done in terms of Blu-ray and HD, making it better than it is today, and down the road – 3D. There are a lot of things that I mention here, but they make Sony unique and stay unique. Differentiating from the competition is very difficult in these days of digitization when it’s very easy to replicate a certain product in the marketplace.

Back in the analog days, Sony would have at least a two year lead with some of our new products until the competition was anywhere close to what we had on the market. It’s more and more difficult to differentiate a digital camera, or digital music player, or a digital TV. What makes Sony special is our various businesses in the entertainment area. I don’t think the current management team, and the vast majority of business managers and employees would have it any other way.

Sony Insider [Christopher]: It would be very strange to live in a world where Sony doesn’t have its media.

Rick Clancy: The culture is 180 degrees from where it was in the early 90′s when Sony acquired Columbia pictures, and a couple years before that CBS records. I think when our people use electronics, music movies pictures and games, we all can find ways to take advantage of the strength of our sister companies in the Sony group to advance our business agendas, and give the consumer a better entertainment experience.

..stay tuned for Part 3, coming soon!