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1 month ago
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Tony Vinciquerra has said he is considering a return to private equity after executing what he described as his controversy-free succession plan at Sony Pictures Entertainment.
In a shock move, Vinciquerra announced last month that he was stepping down from his Sony CEO role in January 2025, but will stay on as non-executive chairman until December 2025. Vinciquerra will be replaced by Ravi Ahuja, Sony’s chairman of global television studios.
During an on-stage interview at MIPCOM in Cannes, Vinciquerra joked that his exit from The Last Of Us producer had been so “boring” that he was almost disappointed that podcasts were not picking over the drama of his decision.
“I like boring,” he smiled. “There’s a famous quote that nobody leaves these jobs intentionally. I’ve done it twice [with the other time at Fox] … it’s been a fun run and it’s time to do something different.” Vinciquerra added that private equity was attractive after he previously spent six years as a media advisor to venture giant TPG. “I like to fix things, I like to build things,” he said.
During the wide-ranging conversation with Variety co-editor-in-chief Cynthia Littleton, Vinciquerra reflected on the “severe impact” of the 2023 strikes, which he said were still being felt by U.S. studios. He bemoaned the fact that contract terms agreed as part of the deal with unions are “pushing production out of the U.S.”
Vinciquerra said he inherited a business that was “still vibrating” from the North Korea hack when he came out of retirement and arrived at Sony in June 2017. He also reflected on stopping Sony from turning itself into a streamer — maneuvers which have cost their motion picture studio competition dearly — while also pivoting Sony Pictures Television away from broadcast into a streaming content supplier.
Vinciquerra said you have to put “parameters around what you do” and that giving employees guardrails can be creatively freeing.
