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I'm more surprised that 10,000 people only represented 6% of their workforce.
Remember when Sony made inspirational products that everyone wanted?
I definitely don't. Maybe at 24 I'm too young to remember those days? All I know about Sony is rootkits, lies, lack of security, exploding batteries and pompous execs that think their customers are idiots.

But given their size, I suppose that growth must have come from innovation in decades past.

i bought a sony walkman radio in the early 80s. still have it, use it every day, use it in the bathroom where it is subject to hot and humid conditions. it's now over a quarter of a century old and works fine.

in the 80s the build quality of sony was legendary. in the 90s they were still excellent and most people i know preferred them over an alternate brand. but minidiscs and even before that d.a.t. showed they preferred a locked down environment that favoured sony and not their customers. mp3s were the nail in the coffin for many folk that i know and people went elsewhere. i stopped recommending sony back in late 90s. cd and dvd burners speeded up the process when sony products refused to handle them.

the rootkits, lies and lack of security were just nails in the coffin.

I'm 28. I remember Walkmans/Trinitrons/Microstereos. You wanted Sony. It's possible that there was some sort of four year cut-off, but when I grew up Sony was king.
Were they really inspirational?

I remember my first walkman fondly. But I think that it was always a small cassette player to me.

My first Walkman totally changed my relationship with music.
I remember the Sony Playstation. Aside from using a different media format, the controller was amazing. It's been the same ever since with small changes.

The walkman was also something I always wanted back in the day. It was good to know you could carry around music with you and listen to it whenever you or your batteries let you.

They still make some of the coolest laptops out there. I've been in awe of my coworker's Vaio-Z
I expected more.

Sony lost every battle—video games, smartphones, cameras, TFTs. Maybe they still lead the professional broadcasting arena.

Downvoting != disagreeing

If you disagree reply.

I can't even down vote but I'll offer an a different point of view.

(lose every battle) != (lose entire war)

Perhaps this a a proactive measure to eliminate some bagage that accumulated during the succeses they had in the areas you mentioned above. Perhaps this is an opportunity to refocus on the areas the have recently lost but still have competitive technology?

Fwiw - this is a reaction to the phrase "Lose every battle" more than anything else. Also, I looked around and I don't own anything by sony and can't remember the last thing I bought from them so perhaps they are still going to lose the war.

add to that the content side, sony music, sony pictures. the music & movies are great but the vast majority dont pay for them.

sony has no leadership. leadership is not "break down the silos and lets all work together".. thats management.