Sony investors back CEO, directors despite losses
Sony Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai speaks during a press conference at the Sony headquarters in Tokyo, Thursday, May 22, 2014. Hirai is acknowledging the company racked up losses and will stay in the red this fiscal year mainly because it failed to act quickly, but promised to carry out reforms – once and for all. AP
TOKYO — Sony shareholders are backing Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai and other top executives despite some heckling about the Japanese electronics and entertainment company’s continuing losses.
They voted at Sony Corp.’s annual shareholders’ meeting held at a Tokyo hotel Thursday. Most votes from institutional investors had been submitted in advance. Attendance totaled 4,662 people, fewer than half for last year.
Some investors got up to ask how Sony had lost its past glory, unable to deliver on exciting products like the original 1979 Walkman portable player.
Hirai, who took the helm in 2012, promised that “the money-losing structure” will be changed this fiscal year, once and for all.
Sony has lost money in six of the seven past years, and is forecasting more red ink for the fiscal year through March 2015.
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