Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony yesterday reported its third annual loss in a row after the March 11 quake, but forecast a return to the black this year despite a huge online attack.
Sony confirmed that it suffered a net loss of ¥259.6 billion (US$3.2 billion) in the year to March, but forecast a net profit of ¥80 billion for the fiscal year that ends next March.
In the quarter to March alone, the maker of PlayStation consoles and Bravia televisions incurred a ¥388.8 billion net loss mainly because of the impact of the earthquake and tsunami. The company also cited a ¥362 billion non-cash charge set aside for deferred tax assets.
Sony said operating profit grew to ¥199.8 billion for the year to March from ¥31.8 billion and that it expects a similar operating profit this year.
“Sales are expected to increase year-on-year, despite the negative impact of the earthquake, primarily due to higher sales in LCD televisions ... and higher sales in semiconductors,” it said.
On Monday, the electronics giant said the impact of the March 11 quake on sales was estimated at ¥22 billion, while it expected to record ¥12 billion in charges related to idled plants and insurance policy previsions.
Sony shut down its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services on April 20 as it was hit by a huge cyberattack and said it could not rule out that millions of credit card numbers may have been compromised.
Earlier this week, hackers attacked Sony Ericsson’s Canadian eShop Web site, affecting 2,000 users while Sony sites have also been hit in Thailand, Indonesia and Greece.
Yesterday, it reiterated an estimate that the initial data breach would result in at least a US$170 million hit in “currently known costs” to operating profit this financial year in terms of insurance and damages.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day