Sony’s quarterly earnings surged more than sevenfold, boosted by blockbuster movie releases, cost cuts and its mainstay consumer electronics business returning to the black.
The Japanese manufacturing icon, known for gadgets like its PlayStation 3 game console, on Thursday said its net profit for the October-to-December quarter jumped to ¥79.2 billion (US$871 million) from ¥10.4 billion a year earlier.
Sales rose 4 percent to ¥2.24 trillion on robust revenue from movies, personal computers and financial services.
Sony said it benefited from strong worldwide theater releases such as 2012 and Michael Jackson’s This Is It, as well as home DVD sales of titles like Angels & Demons.
Since taking over in 2005, Sony chief executive Howard Stringer has been trying to unite the company’s sprawling business, improve efficiency and rein in costs.
The maker of Bravis TVs and Cyber-shot cameras credited the ongoing restructuring and better currency exchange rates for driving its consumer products and devices division into the black.
Sony swung to an operating profit, which is generally seen as the best indication of a company’s pure business performance, of ¥146.1 billion. The Tokyo-based company booked an operating loss of ¥18 billion a year earlier.
The company’s PC business also did well, in large part due to higher sales of Vaio computers.
Overall demand for gaming consoles declined mainly due to lower sales of the PlayStation 2 and PSP portable device. But PlayStation 3 sales jumped more than 40 percent to 6.5 million units during the quarter, Sony said.
Sales of the PlayStation 3 surged to US record in December after a 25 percent price cut ahead of the key holiday shopping season. Until the cut, the console lagged behind its rivals in large part because it came with a bigger price tag.
Sony trimmed its forecast of losses for the fiscal year ending next month.
It now expects a net loss of ¥70 billion, a 22 percent improvement from its previous loss forecast of ¥95 billion. It predicts an operating loss of ¥30 billion instead of a ¥60 billion loss it forecast in October.
In trading yesterday, Sony shares fell 2.2 percent to ¥3,075, while the Nikkei 225 stock index lost 0.5 percent.
SMART MANUFACTURING: The company aims to have its production close to the market end, but attracting investment is still a challenge, the firm’s president said Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said its long-term global production plan would stay unchanged amid geopolitical and tariff policy uncertainties, citing its diversified global deployment. With operations in Taiwan, Thailand, China, India, Europe and the US, Delta follows a “produce at the market end” strategy and bases its production on customer demand, with major site plans unchanged, Delta president Simon Chang (張訓海) said on the sidelines of a company event yesterday. Thailand would remain Delta’s second headquarters, as stated in its first-quarter earnings conference, with its plant there adopting a full smart manufacturing system, Chang said. Thailand is the firm’s second-largest overseas
‘REMARKABLE SHOWING’: The economy likely grew 5 percent in the first half of the year, although it would likely taper off significantly, TIER economist Gordon Sun said The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) yesterday raised Taiwan’s GDP growth forecast for this year to 3.02 percent, citing robust export-driven expansion in the first half that is likely to give way to a notable slowdown later in the year as the front-loading of global shipments fades. The revised projection marks an upward adjustment of 0.11 percentage points from April’s estimate, driven by a surge in exports and corporate inventory buildup ahead of possible US tariff hikes, TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy likely grew more than 5 percent in the first six months
SUPPLY RESILIENCE: The extra expense would be worth it, as the US firm is diversifying chip sourcing to avert disruptions similar to the one during the pandemic, the CEO said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) on Wednesday said that the chips her company gets from supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would cost more when they are produced in TSMC’s Arizona facilities. Compared with similar parts from factories in Taiwan, the US chips would be “more than 5 percent, but less than 20 percent” in terms of higher costs, she said at an artificial intelligence (AI) event in Washington. AMD expects its first chips from TSMC’s Arizona facilities by the end of the year, Su said. The extra expense is worth it, because the company is
The seizure of one of the largest known mercury shipments in history, moving from mines in Mexico to illegal Amazon gold mining zones, exposes the wide use of the toxic metal in the rainforest, according to authorities. Peru’s customs agency, SUNAT, found 4 tonnes of illegal mercury in Lima’s port district of Callao, according to a report by the non-profit Environmental Investigations Agency (EIA). “This SUNAT intervention has prevented this chemical from having a serious impact on people’s health and the environment, as can be seen in several areas of the country devastated by the illegal use of mercury and illicit activities,”
RSS