Variety; Sony Pictures Entertainment Sets CEO Shuffle: Tony Vinciquerra to Step Down, Ravi Ahuja Takes Reins in January

Story from Variety:

Sony Pictures Entertainment is set for a transition at the top in January when Tony Vinciquerra steps down from his role as CEO and hands the reins to Ravi Ahuja.

Ahuja will become president and CEO of the Culver City studio as of Jan. 2. Vinciquerra, who has served as Sony Pictures Entertainment’s chairman and CEO since June 2017, will remain in an advisory role as non-executive chairman through the end of 2025.

The succession plan for SPE has been in the works for two years, after Vinciquerra negotiated his most recent employment contract with parent company Sony Corp. in Japan.

Ahuja will report to Sony Group Corp. chairman and CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and Hiroki Totoki, who is president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer for Sony Group Corp.

“The extraordinary turnaround at SPE over the last 10 years would not have been possible without Tony’s deep experience and expertise in the entertainment space, his strategic vision and his outstanding leadership,” Yoshida said in announcing the change. “Under Tony’s watch, SPE became a critically important part of our efforts to maximize the value of our IP and find synergies across all our entertainment and technology businesses, and it remains a key driver in Sony Group’s ongoing corporate strategies to lean further into the creative and entertainment spaces.”

Ahuja has been with SPE since 2021, signing on as chairman of its global TV studios and business related to Sony Pictures Television. In March, Ahuja was promoted to president and COO of SPE, a move seen at the time as a signal that Vinciquerra’s tenure in the CEO role was coming to an end.

“Since joining SPE in 2021, Ravi has been at the center of Tony’s leadership team, navigating the unprecedented challenges of today’s media and entertainment environment and positioning SPE for further growth,” Yoshida said. “Ravi brings with him years of experience from his time at some of the world’s most successful entertainment companies, and we look forward to working more closely with him in his new role as President and CEO of SPE.”

Vinciquerra’s tenure at the top of SPE started out with a massive restructuring effort as he sought to focus the studio on its core business of film and TV production. By 2017, SPE’s collection of international cable channels was starting to become a drag on earnings, as growth slowed and streaming platforms garnered all the attention. SPE steadily shuttered or sold channels that were underperforming.

Vinciquerra’s legacy is also marked by what SPE didn’t do over the past half-decade or so as other Hollywood studios dove head first into the streaming wars. For Vinciquerra, the path forward for SPE was clear. He kept the studio’s focus on selling high-end movies and TV shows to the highest bidder.

“Early on, we decided not to go into the general entertainment streaming business. All of these companies had jumped in feet first and really didn’t have a plan, except that they were going to be desperate for subscribers. And instead of us diving in to do the same thing, we made the decision to be the arms dealer, and we bulked up on our bench of [TV] creators and did very, very well with it,” Vinciquerra told Variety.

At the same time, SPE did move quickly on platform opportunities that made sense for the studio. Vinciquerra discovered that Sony Corp. owned a sizable anime production studio in Japan. His team studied the market and found that anime was the kind of niche content that has a passionate following. At Vinciquerra’s direction, SPE acquired the fledging anime streamer Funimation and a few years later merged it with competitor Crunchyroll, which SPE acquired from AT&T. Today, the expanded Crunchyroll service has about 15 million paid subscribers worldwide.

On the film side, SPE has been the most vocal of the traditional Hollywood majors to support maintaining exclusivity in the theatrical window for new movie releases. He also pushed hard for the studio to work with its Sony corporate siblings at PlayStation video game division and Sony Music to develop movies and TV shows based on PlayStation franchises. HBO’s much-praised drama “The Last of Us” and the 2022 Tom Holland feature hit “Uncharted” are among the fruits of that effort to date.

Vinciquerra came to Sony after a decade-long run as CEO of Fox Networks Group and six years as an advisor to private equity giant TPG. At the time he had not intended on seeking another executive position. But he could see that SPE was struggling under the weight of a top-heavy management hierarchy and a lack of focus on businesses with strong potential to deliver profits.

He expected to stay for three to four years to initiate the turnaround, which has been significant for Sony. The studio rebounded from years of losses to delivering strong profits to the corporate bottom line. In Sony Corp.’s most recent quarterly earnings report, the parent company underscored that gaming, music and Sony Pictures Entertainment are its three biggest growth drivers.

“Japan has a very positive view of the entertainment world,” Vinciquerra said. “Sony has publicly said that they’re going to be a creative entertainment company and that will be the focus of Sony for the future.”

Vinciquerra is in the enviable position of getting to hand-pick his successor as he prepares to move on to a new chapter. Ahuja, who previously worked with Vinciquerra at Fox, has the right stuff for the job.

“He’s got the experience that we need in the person that is going to run the company. And he’s very calm, very level-headed, very smart,” Vinciquerra said. “He’s lot smarter than I am and he’s much better with people than I am. So I’m really eager to watch him thrive.”

In a statement, Ahuja hailed the studio’s deep roots and special status as one of Hollywood’s foundational studios.

“It is my privilege and honor to take the helm at SPE,” Ahuja said. “This is a special place — an iconic studio with an extraordinary 100-year history of storytelling. Thanks to Tony’s remarkable leadership, we have leading businesses with clear strategies and are set up for even greater success in the years to come. I am energized by the opportunities ahead and am lucky to work alongside thousands of talented colleagues around the world at SPE and at our Sony sister companies. I am grateful for Tony’s mentorship, guidance and friendship through the decades, and I thank Yoshida-san and Totoki-san for entrusting me with this important role.”

For sure, the road ahead for the business of making movies and TV shows is going to remain challenging. But Vinciquerra is proud of where SPE stands today compared to many of its rivals.

“I think we’re in pretty good place. We’re all waiting to see how the business evolves,” Vinciquerra said. “You’re not going to see us have massive layoffs and big changes in the strategy of how we run the business. We’ve put the pieces together. There’s a few other things we’re working on right now, including expanding into location-based entertainment. I think most of the things [Ahuja] is going to be dealing with are positives, not negatives.”