The brunt of ongoing downturn is being felt in the global entertainment sector at last and even the kingpins of the industry are finding tough to deal with the situation. One of them is the Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., which happens to be the movie studio subsidiary of the globally acclaimed Japanese electronics maker. It has come to the knowledge that Sony is relieving of duty almost 250 people and eliminating nearly 100 open positions at the same time. These unfortunate decisions are being taken owing to the exigency and the need to minimize costs.

The decision is firm and there cannot be any further deliberation. This was the general atmosphere when the annunciation of job cuts of 3.5 percent of the studio’s staff worldwide was made by Chief Executive Michael Lynton and studio co-chair Amy Pascal in a staff memo.

They said in the memo categorically, “Our 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.” “These economic effects have, regretfully, made it necessary to take the step we had hoped to avoid, and worked hard to minimize: reducing our headcount.”

It has also come to the knowledge that (though the exact number is not known yet) fewer than 150 people will be laid off in the United States and the majority of it will happen in Los Angeles. Less than 100 people will be dismissed overseas along with this.

Now there is a question. Is this any new development? Was any such approach in the offing? Well, it must be said that lots of discussions were going on due to strange climate and in the month of October the studio moved to reduce overtime, travel and executive benefits to cope with an economic downturn. But the condition is no more the same and it has worsened even.