Designed by designer Philip Johnson in 1984 as AT&T's headquarters building, the office building at 550 Madison Avenue was originally AT&T's headquarters building, with an 825,000-square-foot office building and a 30,000-square-foot annex.

Japanese electronics manufacturing giant Soni announced last day that it will sell its regional headquarters building in Manhattan, New York City, for $1.1 billion in a bid to improve its financial position.

"As the company is taking a series of actions to strengthen its financial base and strengthen its business competitiveness to drive future growth, Soni is balancing cash inflows and cash outflows to improve its cash flow position through careful selection of investments, asset sales and greater control over operating assets such as inventory," said Soni in a statement announcing the sale of its headquarters in the United States. The sale is part of those actions. ”

According to Soni's statement, the entire transaction is expected to close by December this year, net of transaction costs and debts related to the building, Soni can net $770 million in cash, of which $685 million is intended to be included in the company's operating profit for the current fiscal year.

In recent years, Soni's life has not been easy, once a large enterprise with a market value of more than 100 billion US dollars, now it has fallen to about 20 billion, because of the loss of the United States film and television business group, it is even worse than the original version, the original Bi Jing has the pearl in the crown of Ni Film and Television in hand, in the world's largest entertainment stage, can always make his own voice, which is equivalent to when he is down, there is always a decent suit to wear, maintaining the last bit of decency, but now, just wearing a pair of pants and running naked.

Last year, Soni and Soni Electronic Entertainment Co., Ltd. jointly announced that Soni Computer Entertainment Co., Ltd. Chairman and Executive Director Ken Taramu will retire after the expiration of his term of office on June 19, and will be honored as the honorary chairman of Soni Electronic Entertainment Co., Ltd. after retirement, the original position was taken over by Sony Electronic Entertainment President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Kazuo Hirai, after taking over Kutaragi Ken, PSP and PS3 sales in Japan have indeed improved significantly, especially handheld PSP.

On June 1 this year, SCE CEO and Sony Group Vice President Kazuo Hirai will be promoted to President of Soni, but Kazuo Hirai is not a god, and he cannot save the shrinkage of Soni Electronics in the global market.

Sunny announced last month that it would cut 8,000 jobs from its electronics business, cut investment in its electronics business and close some factories to meet its goal of cutting costs by about $1.1 billion a year.

The Associated Press reported that Sony has 185,000 employees worldwide, including 160,000 in the electronics division, and said it would complete plans to cut 8,000 jobs from its electronics division by the end of March 2010. However, Sunny did not say which countries and regions it would lay off those employees from its electronics division.

Soni's announcement of the largest layoff plan for a Japanese company since the start of the international financial crisis comes after a number of other Japanese electronics manufacturers have also announced similar plans. Factors such as diving electronics prices, exchange rate fluctuations, fierce competition in the industry, and a slowdown in global consumption have impacted the electronics production industry.

About 80% of Soni's products are sold abroad. As a result, the yen's exchange rate against the dollar has risen from 117:1 last year to 93:1 this month, hitting several 13-year highs this year.

In addition to layoffs, Soni will also reduce the company's investment in the electronics business by 30% in the 2009 fiscal year, but the company issued a statement saying that although the company has cut production and reduced the scale of inventory, the current economic situation requires Soni to take more forceful measures, in addition to layoffs, Soni will also reduce the company's medium-term management plan for the 2009 fiscal year to invest in the electronic products business by 30%, however, Soni did not disclose the specific amount of the 30% investment.

In the context of the economic crisis, in view of the significant decrease in the demand for LCD flat-screen TVs in Europe, coupled with the rise of local enterprises in mainland China, their market share is further decreasing.

Soni said it will cut its manufacturing sites by about 10 percent from the current 57. In addition, Soni will continue to shift the production of electronic products to lower-cost countries and regions, cut spending on semiconductors, and outsource some of the image sensors used in mobile phones.

In 2008, earnings are expected to fall by 60 percent, and in the final analysis, Soni's actions are mainly aimed at one purpose: to cut costs. "These measures are a response to sudden, rapid changes in the global economic environment," the company said. As a result of these measures, Sony said it will be able to achieve its goal of saving more than $1.1 billion in annual costs by March 2010.

Sony recently sharply lowered its earnings forecast for fiscal year 2008, attributing the decline to lower consumer demand and a stronger yen, with Sony expecting revenue of $1.65 billion, down 59 percent from the previous fiscal year, for the fiscal year ending March 2009.

From July to September this year, Sony's earnings were $229 million, down 72 percent from the same period last year. Hiroshi Sato, the chief investment officer of GCSAM, a company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, has sold his stake in Soni. "Given that the tougher business environment is ahead of us, if Soni doesn't do anything, its earnings could be even more substantial, or even loss-making," Sato told Bloomberg News. ”

The Japanese government said that the large-scale layoffs in Soni will bring serious social and economic problems, and the chief cabinet secretary, a spokesman for the Japanese government, said yesterday that the company decided to lay off employees on a large scale for the sake of business operations, but companies should consider their social responsibilities, because the employees who are laid off will be in a difficult situation, especially at the end of the year.

Affected by the financial crisis, the performance of Japan's major electrical appliances and automobile manufacturers has declined, and news of production cuts and layoffs has been reported.

Now Soni is not in charge of the expenditure reduction of Mr. Fund, but he is also deeply aware of the way to reduce expenditure, and the way to lay off people and sell assets is the only way.

Soni hated MM very much, thinking that it was MM who took away the pearl in their crown, so it would be reduced to this field, and no one could sell it to them at the headquarters of this rice country, and the hateful MM bid was 100 million higher than the second place, which was embarrassing.

Over the years, MM has been asking the top government officials to speak for them, trying to open the door to the Oriental Islands, and the US government agrees with this, whether it is the White House or the State Department, they are happy to speak for them.

Nineteen years ago, under the leadership of Akio Morita, Japan Sony successively acquired the film and music division of CBS, making it a subsidiary of SPE (Sony Film and Television Entertainment), in the context of time and space at that time, Japan's economy grew substantially, and established the status of the world's second largest economy, while the economy of the United States was going downhill like sluggishness; Japan lost to the United States in World War II, many Japanese companies for the sake of national pride, crazy mergers and acquisitions of the United States enterprises, and the United States companies were powerless to fight back. Among them, Japan's Mitsubishi Group bought the landmark Rockefeller Building in New York and Xinli Sony bought Columbia's Samsung Pictures at a sky-high price of 6 billion US dollars, creating the largest overseas merger and acquisition case in Japan at that time, which was regarded by many extreme Chinese as a Japanese invasion of the United States.

The argument of the White House and the State Department is that back then, Japan had money and bought the Statue of Liberty, because it was a free economy, and the people of the United States recognized it, and now the people of the United States have money and take back the Statue of Liberty, but the Japanese have boycotted and sanctioned MM, which is against the law of free economy.

In the past, the US government thought that the Japanese were too small to afford to lose, but now with the strength of MM and their huge team of lobbyists active in Washington, the US government's stance has become more and more tough, and it has repeatedly publicly accused and criticized the Japanese for interfering with the free market and retaliating.

If Japan bans MM from entering, the United States will also take the same measures, and in retaliation, prohibit the sale of Synopsis products into the United States.

The weight of this tone is no different from eating two catties of garlic.

The Japanese are aggrieved, when Lao Tzu bought Columbia Pictures, he spent double the price, and he was miserable by these Yankees, and now he is all fat in his stomach, and he is forced to spit it out, what is the difference between it and robbing? Is this a free transaction? and he will be sued by the wicked first.

This grievance can kill people.

But the opinion of the father of the United States is too important, and the influence they exert is too great, and the Japanese government has no choice but to admit this "misunderstanding", and MM has the right to invest freely in Japan.

In the eyes of the Japanese government, it is really not a big deal for the people of the United States to cut a large piece of fat meat in Soni, and the people of the United States have sheared less wool in Japan?

Besides, if you don't let the people of the United States catch their handles, people can force you to spit it out? You are looking for death yourself, and you still complain about others beating them? Soni has today, and it may not be the people of the United States who did it, this is the general market environment, you can't blame anyone, the global electronics market is shrinking, and Japan is no exception, why bother hurting the harmony for some "little things"?

MM's influence in the world is expanding day by day, and there are also rich network resources in the upper echelons of the United States, so that such people can speak ill of the Japanese day and night, do you still have a good life?"

Therefore, the government authorities also advised Soni to put aside "prejudices", forget the past, start the future, and not hurt the harmony and traditional friendship between the two countries for some trivial things.

After the government also intervened to exert pressure, Soni was forced to swallow the bitter fruit, and in principle, he no longer opposed MM's entry into the Japanese market, and the company's brief history would also cancel its hostile propaganda against MM.