Sony boss Howard Stringer will be the bearer of bad news this Thursday, it seems. Japan’s Nikkei Daily has put out a report that the head honcho is slated to announce the company’s plans to cut 2,000 full-time jobs from the payroll as well as shut down two television manufacturing plants – quite the drastic economic downturn countermeasure, if you consider the fact that they’ll also be cutting managerial and executive bonuses. Ouch.

Of course, Sony may not be in such a dire situation as its plan might make it look like. The 2,000 position elimination thing? They’re going to do it by attrition – i.e. by leaving positions vacated by resignation or retirement unfilled. That means if someone in Sony either resigns or retires, he or she will not be replaced. Much better than simply laying off people left and right.

As for Sony’s Playstation division, there’s no word out yet if it’s going to be affected by the cuts. After all, that bit about 2,000 jobs being cut is only a fraction of the original 16,000 expected body count. We’ll update you as this situation develops.