Sony Electronics, which moved its U.S. corporate headquarters from New Jersey to suburban San Diego five years ago, is restructuring its business here as part of a global overhaul the Japanese giant has been undergoing since January.
Sony arrived in San Diego’s Rancho Bernardo neighborhood in 1972, becoming the first foreign company to establish a TV production facility in the United States. Sony stopped making televisions here in 2006, but kept its U.S.-based electronics division headquarters, including engineering development for Vaio computers, IT devices, digital imaging products and a variety of media, software, and entertainment products.
Sony Electronics currently has approximately 2,000 employees in San Diego. Spokesman Rick Clancy said yesterday it’s “not totally clear at the moment how many will be affected” by the reorganization. Sony offered incentive buyouts to qualifying employees last month, but Clancy said some “streamlining” is expected beyond the buyout-led reductions, and the company won’t have definitive information about its remaining workforce until the end of this month. Clancy, a senior vice president who’s been with Sony for 19 years, is among those taking the company’s buyout offer, and plans to leave by June 1.
[Xconomy San Diego Editor Bruce V. Bigelow contributed to this report]