Sony Pictures Entertainment is restructuring its business to better position the company for growth, leading to job cuts across its film, TV and corporate divisions in the coming months.
“We are aligning our organization with where the business is going — not where it has been,” Chief Executive Officer Ravi Ahuja wrote in a note to staff on Tuesday. “That requires changes to how we are structured and where we invest.” As a result, the company is reducing roles in some areas while increasing focus and investment “in others that are most critical to our future.”
Sony Pictures is part of Japanese conglomerate Sony Group, which also owns the PlayStation gaming platform, a powerful anime ecosystem and one of the world’s top record labels. The company is strengthening those different capabilities with the changes, which will affect “a few hundred” people globally.
Under Ahuja, who stepped into the top job just over a year ago, Sony Pictures is focusing on its franchise strategy and extending its portfolio across genres, with game shows like “Jeopardy!“, anime, video game adaptations and its YouTube capabilities.
The job cuts at Sony Pictures come amid a deep slump and existential crisis in Hollywood. The industry has faced a series of setbacks exacerbated by the pandemic — which shuttered movie theaters and halted production — two prolonged labor strikes and the ongoing collapse of cable TV. Thousands of workers across the industry have lost their jobs as studios slashed their budgets.
