Games to the rescue
Sony announced a year-on-year drop in quarterly net income of 47.4 percent today as only its gaming operations showed an improvement. Sony cited the appreciation of the Yen against the US dollar as one of the reasons.
The electronics operation showed stable revenue but operating income was down 57.2 percent. The Bravia LCD TV division showed an improvement but this was more than off-set by struggles at the Sony Ericsson telco arm, which managed to scrape a net income of only €6 million compared to €220 a year ago . The camera and PC operations suffered reduced profitability due to increased competition and consequent unit price declines.
Sony’s gaming operations, which suffered a loss of ¥29.2 billion a year ago, made ¥5.4 billion this time. This was primarily due to increased sales of the Playstation 3 and the PSP handheld. Sony Pictures lost ¥8.3 billion compared to an operating income gain of ¥4.6 billion a year ago. This was blamed on having no equivalent performer to Spiderman 3, with You Don’t Mess With The Zohan being its best performer this time. Sony BMG, the music arm, also suffered a loss this year having made a profit last year.
As a result of all this, Sony lowered its forecast for the full year to a net income of ¥240 billion, down from its May forecast of ¥290 billion. Its shares were down 3.6 percent in pre-market trading.
Press release: Sony Corporation Announces First Quarter Results
