Sony to announce grand restructuring plans this week

Sony Corp will confirm restructuring measures this week, including the loss of 16,000 jobs and the closure of five or six manufacturing plants.

It's unknown as yet whether or not the company's PlayStation business will be affected by the cuts.

Sony originally announced 8,000 job losses in December. Analysts are already saying 16,000 redundancies across Sony's entire electronics business may still not be enough to steer the giant through a deepening global recession.

"Sony's not in a position to halt all domestic production but it has to do something that drastic," said Mitsushige Akino, chief fund manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

"If it announces plans to move production overseas while keeping only planning and development functions in Japan, that would be a positive."

Sony isn't the only games platform holder being hit by the general retail slowdown - Microsoft is expected to announce 6-8,000 job cuts imminently off the back of weak 2008 sales.