Profit Drops for Sony

TOKYO, July 30: First
quarter net income at Sony Corporation dropped 47.4 percent to 35 billion yen
($323 million), on flat revenues of 1.98 trillion yen ($18.3 billion), dragged
down in part by its Sony Ericsson mobile phone business.

Sony Ericsson Mobile
Communications, a joint venture, saw its profit plunge 97 percent to 6 million
euros, on revenues that were 9 percent lower at 2.8 billion euros. The overall
electronics segment, meanwhile, posted an operating income of 44.4 billion yen
($410 million), reflecting a 57.2-percent decrease. Revenues, meanwhile, were
stable at 1.4 trillion yen ($13.3 billion).

The gaming segment, driven
by increased sales of the PSP and PS3, posted revenues that were 16.8-percent
higher, at 229.6 billion yen ($2.1 billion). The segment also emerged from a Q1
2007 loss to post a profit of 5.4 billion yen ($49.9 million).

At Sony Pictures
Entertainment, meanwhile, revenues were down 31 percent to 159.6 billion yen
($1.5 billion), and the division posted a loss of 8.3 billion yen ($76.7
million). The company attributed the weaker results to difficult comparisons
with the year-ago period, when SPE released Spider-Man 3.

Sony has revised its
outlook projections for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. While revenues
are forecast to rise 4 percent to 9.2 trillion yen ($85 billion), net income is
expected to drop 35 percent to 240 billion yen ($2.4 billion).

—By Mansha Daswani