The departure of Stringer, who last year handed the top post to Kazuo Hirai, would officially mark an end to a period in which Sony, under Stringer, struggled to revive its creative edge and ceded ground to rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics.
Stringer, once a rare foreign CEO at a top Japanese company, said his retirement would let him pursue "new opportunities", the Financial Times quoted him as telling a Japan Society lecture in New York on Friday.
He will step down at a shareholders' meeting in June, the paper said.
Sony could not be reached for comment immediately.
Stringer, a Welshman and a former journalist who later ran U.S. broadcaster CBS, became Sony's CEO in 2005. He is known for cost cuts and restructuring but the company was unable to make game-changer products while he was at helm.
The current CEO Hirai is doubling down on consumer electronics with a focus on mobile phones, tablets and gaming, while shedding non-core assets in a bid to revive Sony criticised as having lost its creative edge.
© Thomson Reuters 2013
For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.