Sagansky Resigns From Sony

Citing a shift of decision-making power to Sony Corp.’s Tokyo headquarters, Sony Pictures Entertainment Co-President Jeff Sagansky announced his resignation Monday.

Sagansky said that in recent meetings it was clear his authority would be reduced because Sony intended “to take a more hands-on approach to managing the international business from and through Tokyo.”

SPE President and Chief Operating Officer John Calley said no decision has been made regarding Sagansky’s position. Although rumors of Sagansky’s imminent departure have circulated for months, “Jeff’s decision took us all a bit by surprise,” Calley said.

Sagansky, 46, became SPE’s second-highest-ranking executive in October 1996, when he became co-president. In that role he has regularly commuted between Los Angeles and New York.

Sagansky was brought into the company as second in command by Michael P. Schulhof, then-head of U.S. operations. Schulhof left Sony in 1995, following criticism of his leadership and Sony’s $3.2-billion write-off of Hollywood assets.

Before joining Sony, Sagansky was president of CBS Entertainment; previously, he was a top executive with Sony-owned TriStar Pictures and a senior vice president of programming at NBC.

Sagansky made his decision after a meeting of top Sony executives two weeks ago in New York, where corporate plans outlined did not sit well with him, he said. On Monday, Sagansky released a statement that read, in part: “The terms under which I accepted this assignment almost a year and a half ago have changed.”

Sagansky said that while he was aware of Sony’s “overall trend” toward taking a more active role in various areas of its U.S.-based operations, it was not until recently that he felt affected by the headquarters’ influence. Despite the suggestion in some quarters that his job description has been vague, Sagansky said that the position “hasn’t been ill-defined, ever. I’ve been in charge of worldwide television operations and international growth opportunities. . . . That’s very specific. What’s happened now is that the clear understanding of what my role is has been changed.”

Calley acknowledged that some major strategic decisions have been made in Japan, bypassing Sagansky’s team. Calley said it was natural that Sony--one of the world’s biggest corporations, with revenue of more than $50 billion a year--would want to be directly involved in such decisions. “I think for executives at Jeff’s level that can be corrosive,” Calley said.

He called Sagansky a “superb executive” who will be presented with “many opportunities.”