per cent last year and Moody's cut its credit rating in January. Mr Hirai's elevation could accelerate a strategic shift at Sony that has seen it place more emphasis on digital content and networks instead of standalone devices. The transition has been championed by Sir Howard but resisted by some older, more engineering-focused executives, and analysts say it remains only partially complete . Mr Hirai was part of a quartet of relatively young executives promoted by Sir Howard in 2009 and dubbed the "four musketeers". In a statement, Sir Howard praised him as "a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature". Another "musketeer", Hiroshi Yoshioka, is to take charge of Sony's small medical devices division -- a move likely to be seen as confirming Sony's intent to expand the business by pursuing a stake in Olympus , the scandal-hit manufacturer of surgical endoscopes. Olympus, which is short of capital and hurting from revelations that it hid losses on speculative investments dating back decades, is looking to sell shares to one or more strategic investors. Sony is understood to have approached the company, as have at least two other bidders: Terumo , a specialist medical equipment group, and Fujifilm , the optical devices maker. So far only Fujifilm has publicly acknowledged its interest. As for Sony's more established businesses, it will be up to Mr Hirai to steer the company out of what has been an