Sony Posts Quarterly Loss

TOKYO: Sony Corporation reported a loss of 136 billion yen ($1.2 billion) last quarter, citing troubles with its mobile phone division.

The weak performance was despite a 7 percent gain in quarterly sales to 1.9 trillion yen ($17.3 billion), with improved performance in cameras, TVs and game businesses. Sony took a 176 billion yen ($1.6 billion) write-down on its mobile phone business last month. The mobile communications unit recorded a 172 billion yen ($1.6 billion) operating loss for the quarter.

The Pictures segment—comprised of the motion pictures, television productions and media networks categories—saw sales increase 2.4 percent year-on-year to 182.2 billion yen ($1.7 billion), mostly due to the favorable impact of the depreciation of the yen against the U.S. dollar. There was a decrease in sales for motion pictures, reflecting lower theatrical revenue, which was partially offset by higher home-entertainment and TV licensing revenues. Theatrical revenues decreased, facing a tough comparison from a higher number of theatrical releases in the same quarter the previous year. Home-entertainment and TV licensing revenues were up, driven by the home-entertainment releases of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Heaven is for Real as well as the TV licensing sales of Men In Black 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man.

The company is forecasting a 230 billion yen ($2.1 billion) loss for the full year, compared to previous estimates of 50 billion yen ($450 million).