Sony Profit Up in Q1

TOKYO: Sony has posted a 39-percent increase in quarterly operating profit, to 96.9 billion yen ($780 million), though sales slipped 0.1 percent to 1.8 trillion yen ($14.8 billion).

Sony's music division saw income rise 173 percent year on year, while its devices business was up 164 percent and games division 350 percent. Sony Pictures Entertainment, however, saw sales decrease 11.9 percent year on year to 171.5 billion yen ($1.4 billion). This was primarily due to significantly lower sales for motion pictures reflecting a decrease in theatrical and television licensing revenues. Theatrical revenues decreased due to the stronger worldwide theatrical performance of films released in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year, which benefited from the performances of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and 22 Jump Street. Television licensing revenues were lower in the current quarter, as the same quarter of the previous fiscal year benefited from sales of Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 and Captain Phillips. This division posted an operating loss of 11.7 billion yen ($96 million) for the quarter.