Sony's Kazuo Hirai among 40 executives to forgo bonuses

Sony's earnings for 2012-13 will be reported on 9 May

Sony says 40 of its senior executives are giving up bonuses worth up to 50% of their salary after they failed to make the company's consumer electronics business profitable again.

The firm said the move was the idea of chief executive Kazuo Hirai, who is among those making the sacrifice.

Sony would not say how much it was saving as a result, but Japanese media said it could total 1bn yen ($10m).

The Japanese company reports its full-year results next week.

However, it has already said it expects to report net income of 40bn yen ($403m; £261m), compared with its previous forecast of 20bn yen.

The bonuses would have been paid after Sony's general shareholders' meeting next month.

Mr Hirai made the proposal to rescind the bonuses because of "severe business circumstances, including stagnant performance in the electronics sector", a Sony spokeswoman told the AFP news agency.

Mr Hirai, who was previously head of Sony's video games unit, took over as chief executive in April 2012, succeeding Sir Howard Stringer.

At the time, he announced a cost-cutting programme which has included cutting 10,000 jobs and selling the firm's US headquarters in Manhattan for $1.1bn.