Howard Stringer’s reach keeps growing at Sony.
Stringer, the chairman and chief executive of Sony Corp. of America who was lately named vice chairman of Sony, recently formed a new operating committee to take a close look at the company’s movie business.
In a memo sent to Sony Pictures Entertainment employees yesterday – a copy of which the company provided to The Post – Stringer named a seven-person operating committee at the company’s movie studio.
“Thanks to all of you, SPE has just concluded the most successful year in motion picture history,” Stringer wrote. “However, the realities of the difficult economic environment demand that we conduct a disciplined review of how we operate each of our core businesses.
“At Sony Pictures, we will be conducting this review from a position of strength, not crisis.”
On the committee is Stringer and Sony Pictures Chairman John Calley, along with other Sony execs Jeff Blake, Yair Landau, Amy Pascal and Rob Wiesenthal.
Also named to the committee was Joe Roth, who is head of Revolution Studios and has had a long-time production venture with Sony.
Roth had been rumored to be in line to succeed Calley. But Calley recently signed a two-year extension to his contract.
Sony recently created a Sony Americas umbrella to oversee all activities in the United States, along with the formation of three business groups – games, entertainment and “personal solutions.”