Sharp Corp yesterday said its full-year net loss shrank by 90 percent and it swung to operating profit on structural reforms after being acquired last year by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), in August last year acquired the Japanese industrial mainstay pummeled by huge losses and mounting debts, taking a 66 percent stake for US$3.7 billion.
Sharp said that for the latest fiscal year to the end of last month, its net loss shrank to ¥24.9 billion (US$224 million) from ¥256.0 billion a year earlier.
Sales fell 16.7 percent to ¥2.1 trillion, but the Osaka-based firm booked an operating profit of ¥62.5 billion, reversing the previous year’s loss of ¥162 billion.
The smaller net loss and operating profit turnaround was partially due to structural reforms, including cost-cutting, Sharp said.
Recoveries and improved profitability in several businesses, including display devices and air conditioners, also contributed, it said.
It did not announce its forecast for the current fiscal year that ends in March next year.
Separately, Sony Corp said it is on track to report its highest annual operating profit in 20 years owing to strong sales in its smartphone component business and PlayStation console division.
The once all-conquering company, which has been emerging from a painful restructuring, said it expects its operating profit to hit ¥500 billion in the year to March next year, which would be its best figures since a ¥525.7 billion operating profit in 1998.
Net profit this year would more than triple to ¥255 billion, Sony said.
Revenue is expected to grow 5.2 percent to ¥8.0 trillion, backed by strong sales of image sensors, which are key components in smartphone cameras as well as other electronics.
Sony said its bottom line also benefited from a one-time gain on the sale of a manufacturing subsidiary in China, as well as insurance recoveries linked to a pair of deadly earthquakes in Japan last year.
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