Sony Slips Into The Red As Profits Slide
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Sony has slipped into the red reporting losses for the last 3 months of operation. However they are expecting bigger than expected profits this year because of booming sales of Bravia LCD TV’s and camcorders. A big problem for the Company is still video gaming with the PS2 and PS3 dragging the overall performance of the Company down.

Sony has slipped into the red reporting losses for the last 3 months of operation. However they are expecting bigger than expected profits this year because of booming sales of Bravia LCD TV’s and camcorders. A big problem for the Company is still video gaming with the PS2 and PS3 dragging the overall performance of the Company down.


Currently Sony is locked in a three-way battle with Microsoft and Nintendo in the gaming market with the Company claiming that they will narrow losses by cutting manufacturing costs of the PlayStation 3 game console


Sony said that it expects its operating profit to grow 20 percent to $4.34 billion in the year to March 2009, beating a consensus of 428.5 billion yen in a poll of 17 analysts by Reuters Estimates.


Japanese exporters including Sony are facing tough business conditions this year due to a firmer yen, rising raw materials prices, and signs of a slowdown in the global economy.


Operating losses came to 4.7 billion yen in January-March, an improvement from the 113.37 billion yen loss it posted a year earlier when it was hit hard by hefty startup costs for the PS3.

 

But the result still fell short of an average estimate of a 27.3 billion yen profit from 5 analysts surveyed by Reuters.
Sony aims to sell 17 million liquid crystal display TVs in the year to next March, up from 10.6 million in the year just ended. That compares with Sharp’s target to sell 10 million LCD TVs and Panasonics plan to sell 11 million flat TVs. 


According to Bloomberg Lower earnings this year may increase the pressure on Chairman Howard Stringer, 66, to deliver products that can outsell Nintendo Co.’s Wii and Apple’s iPod. Sony shares are the worst performers this year among Japan’s five largest consumer electronics makers.

Bloomberg say that “Sony has too many businesses and it is too dispersed,” Pascal Masse, who doesn’t own Sony shares amid the $1 billion he manages as a fund manager at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Ltd. in Tokyo, said before the results were announced. “There is no indication of what the company wants to do.”