Will Hirai Be Sony Corporation (ADR) (SNE)’s Mayer?

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Similarly with Sony – the company is still chasing profits in the TV business, where it was passed long-ago by Samsung. Its phone unit, now wholly owned, also follows in the wake of the larger Samsung. Its Vaio line remains tied to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), which is not a good place to be as tablets replace PCs. And despite anything that may be happening around entertainment, TVs and phones remain where Sony’s sales volumes lie.

The Foolish call is Yahoo!

So it’s possible that Hirai is indeed Sony’s Mayer. But that is not necessarily proof of success. The foolish play here remains Yahoo!, given Sony’s enormous exposure to products it can’t make money on. Just as Mayer needs to deliver on the top line, Hirai needs to deliver in products before claiming real success.

If Hirai can make more than the Playstation a hit, however, the leverage exists there to make some serious coin. It’s just not the way to bet.

Dana Blankenhorn owns shares of Yahoo!. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.

The article Will Hirai Be Sony’s Mayer? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Dana Blankenhorn.

Dana is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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