Sony Pictures to Cut 300 Jobs

Sony Pictures Entertainment plans to cut at least 300 jobs over the next 18 months, in keeping with a mandate from Tokyo-based parent Sony Corp. to slash overhead throughout the company, according to sources familiar with the expected move.

The layoffs will follow the elimination of 1,000 jobs in the entertainment and electronics giant’s struggling music group earlier this year.

The new cuts are expected to hit across the board at Sony Pictures’ key business units, including its Culver City-based Columbia Pictures movie studio, domestic and international television operations and Sony Pictures Digital. Sources estimate that the cuts could save the company as much as $75 million a year.

“We are always looking for better and more efficient ways to run our businesses,” said a Sony spokeswoman. She declined to comment further.

Faced with problems in its electronics and music operations, Sony has seen its shares fall almost 20% in Tokyo trading this year, even as the benchmark Nikkei-225 stock index -- which includes Sony -- is up almost 28%.

In July, Sony reported a 98% decline in profit for its fiscal first quarter, citing a slump in sales of television sets and a disappointing run of summer movies compared with the blockbuster success of last year’s “Spider-Man.”

Sony Pictures Entertainment employs about 6,000 worldwide. Exactly when pink slips will be handed out at the unit or how deep the cuts will be at the movie studio remain unclear. As of midafternoon, most employees on the Culver City lot were still in the dark about the layoffs.

Sony Corp. of America Chairman and Chief Executive Howard Stringer, who flew to Los Angeles late Tuesday from his New York headquarters, was unavailable for comment.

Stringer is expected to deliver the luncheon address at today’s Town Hall Los Angeles meeting at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The executive has been looking for ways to downsize and manage costs in the Japanese company’s U.S. operations for months. Last spring, he formed a seven-member operating committee of top executives to review and help contain spending at the movie studio and other units.

While the studio has enjoyed a box-office turnaround in recent years, it also has been spending huge sums of money on movie marketing and production. Studio managers have been trying to minimize risk by making more advantageous deals with talent and, in some cases, using co-financing partners on its movies.

The expected layoffs follow the recent announcement that Sony Pictures’ 73-year-old chairman, John Calley, is retiring.

Sony Pictures is now managed by a troika of vice chairpersons -- Amy Pascal, who heads Columbia Pictures; Jeff Blake, who oversees marketing and distribution; and Yair Landau, who watches over the digital and television units. The trio and Calley sit on the operating committee with Stringer. Other members of the committee include Sony Corp. of America Chief Financial Officer Rob Wiesenthal and Joe Roth, whose Revolution Studios is a major supplier of movies to Columbia.

This year, Stringer oversaw a shake-up at Sony’s global music division, where the Japanese conglomerate has suffered from declining sales amid rampant digital piracy.

Sony ousted long-reigning music chief Thomas D. Mottola, replacing him with former TV executive Andrew Lack. The music unit continues to struggle despite slashing $100 million in annual costs.

For the three months ended June 30, the music unit posted an estimated $50-million operating loss. And in the last six months, Sony Music has slipped from second place to fourth in sales of new releases in the United States among the five major record conglomerates, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.

With its core electronics business mired in a prolonged slump, Sony Corp. is expected to announce another major reorganization of the company Oct. 28, said analyst Richard Doherty of Envisioneering Group, a technology research firm.

Sony is expected to move most of its U.S. electronics operations from its headquarters in New Jersey to San Diego, home of its Vaio computer division. There’s no estimate on the number of jobs that will be lost in the move. But the clear goal of the consolidation, Doherty said, is to eliminate duplication and reduce costs.

Times staff writers Jeff Leeds and Jon Healey contributed to this report.