Sony Ericsson names new top executive

Sony Ericsson named Hideki Komiyama as its new top executive as it announced that Miles Flint will step down for personal reasons, an Associated Press report said.

The Associated Press report said Flint, who became president of the company in 2004 and helped bring the venture to profitability, will remain executive adviser to Komiyama, currently chairman of the board of Sony Electronics, USA, and EVP Electronics Marketing and Sales Strategies of Sony, Japan, until the end of the year.

Komiyama will take up his position November 1, the report said.

The Associated Press report also quoted Sony CEO and chairman Howard Stringer as saying that Sony Ericsson, founded in 2001 as a joint venture of Telefon AB LM Ericsson and Sony, had doubled sales and volume and more than doubled profitability while under Flint's stewardship.

Analysts said the announcement of Flint's resignation came as a surprise, and took his comments that he had decided to leave for personal reasons at face value, the report said.