Sony Hack: Sony Corp. CEO Kazuo Hirai Thanks Employees During a Visit to the Studio’s Lot

Sony Corp. CEO Kazuo Hirai visited Sony Pictures’ Culver City lot today and offered his thanks to the studio employees who weathered the November cyberattack and the subsequent storm of controversy that surrounded the Christmas release of The Interview.

Reiterating remarks he made on Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, he sent out an email in which he said “your resourcefulness and creativity during this time has been truly extraordinary” and, he added, “I look forward to Sony Pictures emerging from this experiences stronger than ever.”

The complete memo follows:

Welcome back from the holiday break and Happy New Year.

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I recognize the events over the last several weeks have been extremely challenging for each of you, both personally and professionally. Your resourcefulness and creativity during this time have been truly extraordinary.

I talked about the Sony Pictures cyber-attack at our Consumer Electronics Show press conference in Las Vegas on Monday and wanted to share what I said with you.

I told the world how proud I am of all of the employees of Sony Pictures for standing up against the extortionist efforts of those criminals that attacked Sony Pictures. I know that many of you have worked tirelessly – in some cases 24 hours a day for days on end – both to help the studio recover and to bring /The Interview/ to audiences here in the United States and in Canada, across online venues, as well as in motion picture theaters across the United States and Canada.

I also thanked the partners who made this release possible, and the people who have viewed the movie in theaters or through various online venues.

Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of association are the lifeblood of Sony and our entertainment businesses. Because of your efforts and those of our distribution partners, /The Interview/ is now available for audiences to enjoy through multiple online venues; through our satellite, telecom, and our cable partners; and, as the first of this month in more than 580 independent theaters.

I look forward to Sony Pictures emerging from this experience stronger than ever.

I will be at the studio today and look forward to seeing and talking with some of you while I am there.

Kaz