Sony CEO Stringer adds president post in shake-up

By Nathan Layne

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp, facing a record loss this year, said chief executive Howard Stringer would add the post of president and take direct control of the ailing electronics division at the centre of its problems.

Current president Ryoji Chubachi, an engineer who rose to the top of the electronics division, would become vice chairman, the company said on Friday, in a shake-up that consolidates Stringer's control of the sprawling Sony empire.

"It's positive for Sony. It has to bite the bullet and needs drastic job cuts and restructuring in the loss-making television sector to turn the business around," said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments.

"A foreign CEO would fit much better for such a tough job."

Sony, struggling with tough competition across all its major product lines, said it would reorganise its electronics and games businesses.

The company that created Walkman portable music players has fallen behind Apple Inc's iPod in portable music and Nintendo Co in video games, and is losing money on flat TVs.

The changes come about a month after Sony warned it would post an annual operating loss of 260 billion yen ($2.7 billion) for the year to March 31, hit by sliding demand and a strong yen.

The maker of Bravia LCD TVs and PlayStation game consoles has previously outlined plans to streamline production and cut 16,000 jobs in the second major restructuring since Stringer, a former journalist who rose up the ranks of U.S. television network CBS, became chief executive in 2005.