Yahoo Finance Sony to Promote Veteran CFO to Global Operations Overseer
(Bloomberg) -- Sony Group Corp. is elevating Chief Financial Officer Hiroki Totoki to a position overseeing all operations, a move that splits the burden of running a Japanese giant spanning everything from chips to movies to insurance.
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58-year-old Totoki will become president and chief operating officer of Sony on April 1, the company said Thursday. Current president Kenichiro Yoshida will retain his positions as chairman and chief executive officer.
Totoki, who’ll remain CFO, leads the Tokyo-based entertainment and electronics group’s earnings calls and already plays a key role in helping define Sony’s strategy. The move is seen as helping the company better sustain and develop business initiatives put in place by Yoshida and his CEO predecessor Kaz Hirai.
“Sony’s longstanding problem has been that it can’t sustain what it has started. And Totoki is known as a steady operator,” said Waseda Business School professor Atsushi Osanai. “On the other hand, stakeholders also expect Sony to create new things, so it will be interesting to see what kind of team Totoki assembles and how he addresses that expectation.”
The company is expected to report its biggest operating profit decline in two years in the quarter just ended later on Thursday, as rising component costs and weak consumer sentiment combine to hurt margins.
Sony Profit Fall May Be Biggest in Two Years: Preview
The projected drop follows a strong year-ago quarter, when Spider-Man: No Way Home played in theaters worldwide. Sony, which makes camera sensors for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, has been grappling with a global mobile market contraction, even as production of its PlayStation consoles recovered from Covid-era disruptions toward the end of last year.
(Update with official announcement)
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