After a decade of struggle, the year 2011 was supposed to be a comeback year for Sony. The consumer electronics and entertainment giant had one its best batches of new prod ucts ever heading for store shelves. Even more important, Sony was heading back into the digital big leagues with the launch of an iTunes-like global digital network that would combine Sony’s strengths in movies, music, and video games for all its televisions, PCs, phones, and tablets. Analysts forecasted a $2 billion profit. “I really and truly believed that I was going to have a year to remember,” says Sony’s chairman Sir Howard Stringer. “And I did, but in the wrong way.” Instead of a banner year, 2011 produced a OFBSQFSGFDUTUPSNPGFOWJSPONFOUBMDBMBNJUJFT for Sony. For starters, in March 2011, eastern Japan was devastated by a mammoth earth quake and tsunami. The disaster forced Sony to shutter 10 plants, disrupting operations and the flow of Sony products worldwide. In April, a hacking attack on the company’s Internet FOUFSUBJONFOU TFSWJDFTUIF TFDPOEMBSHFTU online data breach in U.S. history—forced the company to shut down its PlayStation Net work. Only four months later, fires set by rioters in London destroyed a Sony warehouse and an estimated 25 million CDs and DVDs, gut ting an inventory of 150 independent labels. To round out the year, floods in Thailand shut down component plants there.