Sony has announced that Kaz Hirai will be stepping down as CEO on April 1st. No, this is not a pre-emptive April Fool’s Day joke.

After sixteen years at the helm of Sony, Hirai will become chairman and the CEO slot will be filled by Kenichiro Yoshida, the company’s former CFO.

Hirai will probably be best remembered for his One Sony policy, which while cutting around 10 000 jobs, also managed to turn around Sony’s fortunes.

Under his leadership, Sony sold off its Vaio PC division and poured most of its efforts into its TV, gaming and mobile phone divisions. Out of those three sectors, it’s only smartphones that Sony seems to be still struggling with; its TV division is a major player and by last count the PS4 has sold almost double the amount of units that the Xbox One has.

The only major blot on Sony’s record during Hirai’s time at the helm was the PSN hack, which the company responded rather poorly to, initially denying it had happened.

“As the company approaches a crucial juncture, when we will embark on a new mid-range plan, I consider this to be the ideal time to pass the baton of leadership to new management, for the future of Sony and also for myself to embark on a new chapter in my life,” Hirai said.

For his part, Yoshida added, “my first priority will be to finalise our next mid-range corporate plan starting in April, together with our immediate business plan for the fiscal year 2018, and then move ahead swiftly with implementation.”