After the massive hack which hit the company around three months ago, Amy Pascal will be stepping down as the co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and head of the film studio.

Pascal will be launching a major new production venture at the studio, informed Sony Pictures. She has been with Sony pictures for almost 20 years.

After the hack, Pascal was criticised for racist comments about President Obama's presumed choice in movies which surfaced in the leaked mails. She also faced criticism for giving the green signal to "The Interview", the movie which may have inspired the hacking in the first place.

Sony Pictures will be financing Amy Pascal under a four-year contract and will retain distribution rights worldwide to the films it will fund. Pascal will be shifting to the new venture, which will be located at Sony Pictures lot in Culver City California, in May.

Sony Pictures has collected more than 46 billion in theatrical box office along with 315 academy nominations since it has been led by Pascal.

The company upgraded its sales forecast for its pictures business in the year ending in March by around 3.5 per cent to 7.6 billion dollars, earlier this week.

However, it is expecting the operating profits to fall by 4 per cent owning to the money spent in costs from investigating the cyber-attacks and fixing the issues which followed. The company informed that most of the cost associated hack will be covered by insurance.