Friday, March 14, 2014

Sony

Deadline reports:

... There is anxiety in Culver City today as word gets around on the Sony lot that significant layoffs are coming as soon as Monday. “You wouldn’t be wrong to describe it as a high state of panic over here,” said one. I will disclose the layoff specifics when I learn them, but it’s not a surprise that this is happening; it was considered an eventuality when Sony hired Bain & Company to figure out a way to cut $100 million in operating costs across movies, TV and the music operations. Staffers from that consulting company have made their presence felt on the lot. This attempt to run more efficiently came out of the discussions that Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton had with Kazuo Hirai after minority shareholder Daniel Loeb ragged on the studio after a string of flop films. ...

Sony Pictures Animation, so far as I know, won't be impacted by this because there are multiple features in development and the staff is not large to begin with.

But of course, Sony Pictures Imageworks has already taken it in the shorts, losing work to Sony Imageworks Vancouver, where free money is readily available and SPI has shifted much of its labor force, the better to slurp up corporate subsidies.

If I find out different, I'll pass it along.

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