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Sony Corp sees losses grow
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 3 November 2011
Sony Corp lost a neat £216 million in the most recent financial quarter, leading the electronics and entertainment giant to revise its year-end estimates to a £719 million loss. It will be the fourth consecutive year that the conglom has made a loss overall.
Currency fluctuations continue to cause problems for the Sony empire, which invariably sees its international revenues reduced once converted into the frequently strong Japanese Yen, and natural disasters in both the firm’s home country and Thailand have impacted on operations adding to costs. Though disappointing performances in some Sony divisions are also partly to blame for the company’s overall losses, lower than expected TV sales being a particular problem this year.
Apple remains a major thorn in Sony’s side, stealing market share in PCs, smartphones and music devices, and, of course, Sony’s own efforts to strengthen its position in the cross-device digital entertainment space were hindered earlier this year by the embarrassing security breach of its servers, causing private data of those signed up to the Sony gaming and entertainment networks to spill.
Although not the biggest concern in the wider Sony empire, the firm’s music company saw sales decline 6.6% year on year for the most recent quarter, with revenues of $1.34 billion. The company blamed continued declining album sales, especially outside the US, for the revenue drop. The biggest selling artists for the major during the quarter were Beyonce and Adele, the latter – signed to indie XL of course – being distributed by Sony’s Columbia in America.
