Sony Pictures cuts 350 jobs

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Sony Pictures, as expected, today told employees that it is cutting about 350 jobs at the company, both through layoffs and leaving open positions unfilled. The cutbacks amount to about 5% of Sony’s workforce of 7,000 employees.

Of the 350, layoffs account for 250 and closing open positions comprise the remainder. The layoffs include about 120 people who work at Sony’s studio in Culver City and other offices in Los Angeles.

In an e-mail address to employees, Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton and Co-Chairman Amy Pascal said the studio remains profitable, ‘but over the past five months, the deepening global financial crisis has begun to impact some of our lines of business such as television syndication, DVDs and advertising sales.’

Last fall, Lynton and Pascal told the staff that the studio would reduce overtime, travel, entertainment and executive benefits, hoping it would be enough to stave off job cuts. The economic downturn, however, and its effect on consumer spending -- which drives Sony’s revenues -- have been much deeper than they expected.

Sony Pictures joins other studios, including Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures and the Walt Disney Co., which have laid off employees amid the downturn.

--Claudia Eller