Is Ken finished at Sony?

[HappyBread]

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conews&tkr=SNE:US

Sony's CEO Stringer Also Named Head of Video Games Business
March 31, 2005 03:25 EST -- Howard Stringer, who was named chief executive of Sony Corp. this month, will also oversee the company's video games division, the world's second-biggest consumer electronics maker said in a faxed statement today.

Poor Ken...

 

[London Geezer]

Old, and Ken aint going nowhere.

 

[hey69]

Ken Kutaragi is joining Microsoft

 

[Druga Runda]

I tend to think poor Sony.

 

[Brimstone]

Lets see.

First they didn't tell Kutaragi about the Stringer appointment until the last minute and now this. Ken doesn't seem to be too popular with the upper level decision makers.

 

[London Geezer]

Yeah i mean, with all the bad things Ken has done for Sony over the years, Sony are better off without him...

 

[Cobra101]

Yeah, I guess a March 31, 2005 article is old.

Its close to April 1 in Japan now.


I see no good from this if Kutaragi is gone.

 

[London Geezer]

Besides, "oversee the videogame business" is a rather generic statement. KK is and will be at the top of Sony's videogame business for a long time...

 

[Megadrive1988]

Ken to join SEGA to help Sega rejuvionate videogame hardware buisness!

 

[Brimstone]

Yeah i mean, with all the bad things Ken has done for Sony over the years, Sony are better off without him...

I'm sure Sony is going to clear this up real quick if Ken is still going to hold down the fort. Strange the PS3 unveiling or closed door talk never took place either.

 

[hey69]

More changes: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment will operate under Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) from april 1st

 

[j^aws]

Not sure what the big deal is...Ken's direct report in this case would be to the CEO of SONY...no middle men...

 

[pahcman]

as much we hate kutarigai's hype we have admire his guts to make agressive decisions.

but now even clearer sony group execs shareholders do not like such style. like i said before. now what will it holds for future ps?

seem so long now how good feelings he have when at top, remember he said,

With the April 2003 promotion, Mr. Kutaragi sprang into action, phoning engineers throughout Sony to ask for help building the portable game machine. "Sony engineers -- they're very, very selfish. It's very hard to combine even one [of their] projects. But I combined 20 projects" to create the machine, Mr. Kutaragi boasts.

now with less power will rest of combating sony divisions hear him out?

 

[hey69]

he didn't make it because of various fuckups in the past.

this time, they will cut corners , maybe downgrade or change PS3 specs to make it less of a moneydrain? no blueray in ps3? 256mb instead of 512?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There's only one possible outcome. The March showing was cancelled because Sony are pulling the plug on PS3. They've looked at the specs (1 Gig System RAM, 4x1:8 config Cells, 512Mb VideoRAM on GPU with 128 pipes, etc.) and decided they can't lose that kinda money. KK was too ambitious. So they'll ditch PS3, provide instead a 32 meg upgrade for PS2 as their Next-gen offering, and pull out of the US market because they can't sell there any more. Obvious, ain't it...

 

[nAo]

Shifty Geezer...you're way out. There never was a 4 PPE PS3 , 1 GBytes of main memory, etcetera..in any Sony plan.
Do you believe they're dumb?

 

[London Geezer]

Shifty Geezer...you're way out. There never was a 4 PPE PS3 , 1 GBytes of main memory, etcetera..in any Sony plan.
Do you believe they're dumb?

He was being sarcastic!!

 

[rabidrabbit]

I agree with Jaws here.
That doesn't seem to affect Ken Kutaragi's current position in any way, he was to be given the title of group executive officer, effective from April 1 2005.

I don't see Stringer directly replacing him as the chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment.

From Sony Excecutive Biography (not yet updated):

As Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sony Corporation of America, he is responsible for all of Sony’s entertainment businesses, as well as electronics, technology and convergence efforts in the United States. He oversees Sony Pictures Entertainment, the parent company of Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Television, Sony Pictures Digital; and Sony Electronics Inc., the company's U.S. based electronics hardware sales, marketing and manufacturing business. He is a board member of Sony BMG Music Entertainment (which is 50% owned by Bertelsmann A.G. and 50% owned by Sony Corporation of America), one of the largest recorded music companies in the world, and he oversees Sony’s other music-related holdings in the U.S.

As you can see, Stringer has many "overseeing" roles, overseeing SCE and Kutaragi Ken now that KK's a group executive officer is just becoming one of his jobs, from April 1 onwards.

 

[Brimstone]

I wonder if the Nvidia GPU caused more friction. It was rumored that Toshiba was making the GPU. We've seen all the patents Nao found and posted here. I forget who said the choice of the nV GPU was a shock to Toshiba and that Sony was funding the project up until the nV GPU was decided upon. If accurate, that would mean all the R & D Sony paid Toshiba went down the drain more or less. Plus it has slowed things down a bit since the nV GPU has even taped out yet. At least as far as we know.

Anyway I'm sure this is going to get cleared up really quickly.

 

[j^aws]

...
Anyway I'm sure this is going to get cleared up really quickly.

WTF is there to clear up???

Some of you people obviously have no management experience...