MUMBAI: The Sony Corporation of America has appointed Michael Lynton, the chief executive of AOL Europe, as to lead its entertainment arm in Hollywood.
As chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lynton, will be responsible for overseeing television, technology and the studio's budget and business affairs and watch over all divisions in Los Angeles.
He will also have joint responsibility to approve all films made by the studio with vice chairwoman, Amy Pascal, who is promoted to chairwoman of the motion picture group. Both will report to Sir Howard Stringer, the chief executive of the New York-based Sony Corporation of America, a unit of the Sony Corporation.
Despite a blockbuster year at the box office with films like Bad Boys II, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and S.W.A.T in 2002, Sony is trying to become more cost-efficient in making movies and curtail illegal downloading, which has harmed the music industry and now threatens the movie industry as well.
With his past experience in turning around ailing media divisions, Lynton also brings with him Internet as well as media experience. In the 1990s¸ he was president of the Walt Disney Company's Hollywood Pictures and, later, chief executive of publisher Penguin Group. He will move to Los Angeles to take up his job in January.