Sony's quarterly loss more than doubles

The Japanese tech giant lowers its full-year earnings forecast.

By New Statesman Published 02 August 2012

Kazuo Hirai, chief executive of Sony Corporation. Credit: Getty Images

The struggling tech giant Sony Corporation has posted a net loss of ¥10.59bn for the first quarter ended 30 June, compared to ¥4.41bn for the same period last year.

Operating income decreased by just over 77 per cent to ¥6.27bn (2011: ¥27.5bn), dragged down by unfavourable foreign exchange rates and disappointing sales of games consoles and televisions. The mobile products and communications segment saw sales increase 132.9 per cent year-on-year to ¥285.6bn, while games decreased by 14.5 per cent to ¥118bn primarily due to lower sales of hardware and software of the PlayStation Portable.

Sales in the devices division declined by 14.4 per cent to ¥217.3bn, while there was a 6.2 per cent increase in the pictures sales division to ¥153.4bn. Music generated sales of ¥98.8bn, while financial services achieved revenue of ¥194.5bn.

In the imaging products and solutions division, sales grew 7.6 per cent year-on-year to ¥193.8bn, while home entertainment and sound sales declined by 26.2 per cent to ¥251.8bn largely owing to a decrease in LCD television unit sales in Japan, North America and Europe.

So the news wasn't all bad: sales increased by 1.4 per cent to ¥1515.18bn (2011: ¥1494.92bn). On a constant currency basis, sales increased 5 per cent year-on-year. But the Japanese company nudged down its earnings forecast for the coming year to March 2013 to a profit of ¥20bn (compared to ¥30bn projected in May), citing the continuing strength of the yen and the unpredictable (yet gloomy) global demand.