Sony to Trim 8,000 Jobs and Reduce Investment

NYT - The Sony Corporation, the Japanese consumer electronics giant, said on Tuesday that it would eliminate 8,000 jobs and rein in planned investment in reaction to the global economic slowdown.

Sony, which had already announced scattered cost-savings measures, blamed rapid deterioration in the global economic outlook and the strength of the Japanese currency for the cuts.

The measures, combined with a bleak outlook from a Sony rival, Samsung, and news that Japan’s economy had contracted more than initially thought during the third quarter, highlighted how much Asian economies were suffering because of the financial crisis — now increasingly also an economic crisis — that began in the United States last year.

“The number of job cuts in Japan will increase day by day,” said Tomoko Fujii, head of economics and strategy in Tokyo with Bank of America.