Sony To Post $1.1 Billion Loss: Reports

TOKYO — Sony will post a 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) operating loss this fiscal year through March, its first since 1995, media reports said Tuesday.

The electronics giant has seen sales of its liquid crystal display screens and other products fall, and its bottom line has been hurt by the strong yen, which cuts profits on goods sold abroad, the Nikkei business newspaper and broadcaster NHK reported.

The losses are coming from the company's core electronics division, which has long been a steady source of profits, the reports said. The Nikkei said Sony's operating loss could balloon to as much as 200 billion yen ($2.2 billion).

A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the reports.

In October, the company revised its operating profit forecast to 200 billion, 57 percent lower than its earlier target of 470 billion yen.

Last month, Sony said it would implement major cost-cutting to ride out the current economic downturn, including slashing 4 percent of its work force, lowering spending and shutting plants.

Sony is particularly vulnerable to the strong yen, as about 80 percent of its sales come from overseas. The company had been counting on strong holiday sales in U.S. and Europe, but consumers have been spending less as the worldwide economy falters.

Other major Japanese exporters, such as Toyota and TDK, have also announced job cuts and spending cutbacks.

Sony's shares were down 8 percent at 2,020 yen in early market trade Tuesday. The benchmark Nikkei stock index was down 4.4 percent.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects year of last operating loss to 1995 from 1985)

Comments

[Chillinout]

I think I have found the problem. Here is Sony's newest product:

http://carcino.gen.nz/images/index.php/00b9a680/0eafc371

[MNmommy]

:P

If only it were that simple, right?

[Mogamboguru]

LOL! 8-) Prizeless!

Ah - those good, old days of tape-recorders - when a Sony-Walkman would make you the king of the Pub... ;-)

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

LOL great one.

[MNmommy]

What a childish headline.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

I agree 100%. It is childish and ethnically offensive.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Face it when the worlds number one consumer is hurting every country is hurting.

It's the fault of many countries around the world especially in Asia. They have sucked on the teat of the cash cow for too long. You cannot move all manufacturing jobs overseas for decades and now move service jobs as well and then expect the American market to have the purchasing power it once had. There are many people to blame especially the short sighted corporations that went for short term profits over long term sustainability.

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

Sanity revisited, glad you stopped in KQSE!

Sadly reading most of these posts I get the impression that too many don't have a clue. They don't know why Europeans can vacation here for a month, why the cash cow has lost its bell, why the Indian call center/service center is the boon of India, why we need Obama so badly/

Most of the posts here are about the meltdown and its effects, the truth is about the breakdown in the backbone of Americans who once stood up to the Government and made it pass laws and enforce them that allowed workers to prosper. The anti-union anti benefits rants of the Republicans threaten to destroy not just our auto industry but our whole industrial base, what is left of it anyway.

[Chillinout]

We need to bring back the activism of the 60s. I think that Barack's election has gone a long ways towards doing just that.

It was during the 70s that all of a sudden there needed to be a two income family to even survive and we have been going steadily downhill since then. We are almost at a point now where we all need to become polygamists to even survive.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

I stated in an early post that the biggest failure of the Bush administration was that he enabled a business community atmosphere that was 100% contemptuous toward the workers. Businesses made record profits but thanks to the climate of no accountability that Bush created corporate CEOs got record salaries and workers wages declined, especially considering job loses. Government and business broke that fiduciary responsibility to society that even Adam Smith talked about to make sure that employees profited along with companies.

Worse corporations shipped more and more jobs overseas and replaced American workers with foreign workers who have lower wages and purchasing power than American workers. The housing bubble would not have been nearly as big if Americans did not need to incur so much debt if their salaries had increased commensurate to corporate profits. The ironic part is that both foreign corporations and domestic corporations were just cutting of their noses to spite their faces so to speak because the more they diminished the workers the more workers are unable to buy their products and services.

[Chillinout]

We need to bring back the activism of the 60s. I think that electing Barack has gone a long ways to doing just that.

It was in the 70s when I think the decline of America really started. It was then that you needed to have a two-income family just to survive all of a sudden. We, as Americans, started working more though our dollars bought less and less.

What I don't understand is why an ideology would be created that would result in the destruction of this country, were it allowed to continue. I am of course, talking about the Republicans here. Most everything that is happening today can be traced back to Nixon. That was the beginning anyway as far as I can see.

[rst2536]

See "THE BANKERS' ECONOMY" on
http://poemsonaffairsofstate.blogspot.com/

[AutumnRecluse]

I would like to thank Barny Frank for his part in this financial crisis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&feature=channel_page

I do think we're going to make it out of it though. Bush has given the banks the liquidity they needed to stay in business and prevented the worst part of this criis. Now Obama will take the additional 350 billion and inject it into the bottom of the market. That will gives the extra push we need to move out of the recession.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

No one person is hardly to blame as much as the president who is supposed to be steward of the American economy. Bush has made ALL the wrong moves and has had no oversight over the economy for 8 years and is responsible for wasting much of the first half of the TARP.

Obama is going to redirect much of the TARP funds directly to people who need them. When I was in the hospital 3 people I spoke with (all nurses) were the type of working people that these funds should have been directed to in the first place. They bought homes that have decreased in value and now they are close to facing foreclosure. It used to be if you got an education and worked hard in this country you could own your own home and raise a family. Thanks to the greed is good Rethuglicanism over the last few decades this basic fiduciary responsibility of government and business has been breached.

People miss the basic economic failure of the Bush administration and it's not the housing bubble. The basic failures of the Bush economy is stagnant wages and job growth because companies made record profits in the middle of his presidency. Bush created a climate where they did not share those profits with employees. If corporations had shared their wealth in the first part the bubble would have been much smaller because people would not have had to incur so much personal debt in the first place.

[Paul Peete - Huffpost Blogger]

I qm sure you to see Autumn Rose for what she is, an apologist for the right wing and is merely looking to deflect criticism from its rightful source the Corporatists. I am through arguing with them about Bush and the whole neocon, corporatist agenda and will focus on solutions.

Today I vowed to refrain from ever responding directly to any tr0// who is here to blame democrats and exonerate Dubya and the rest of his right wing ca/bal. Yes, democrats are complicit but as the minority party they were merely along for the joyride. well the tires are flat, the car is overheated, the driver is fatigye, and the fare is due.

Show your guts America! Let's get our act together!

[MNmommy]

That's really all you have left isn't it? Y'all shout BARNEY FRANK! (or DODD! or SCHUMER!) to attempt to distract from the truth.

Distraction has worked for a really long time for you and your ilk - I'm hopeful that that time has come to an end, since your economic philosophy has resulted in the utter collapse of not only the US economy - but the economy of the whole world. As folks are being foreclosed upon - they tend to wake a bit and start paying attention to how this could have happened.

[Chillinout]

Nothing like despair to shake people out of their apathy.

[OldKnute]

My,,,, My!

“And I will take from you first, your silver and gold.”

My,, My!

All the best

Knute

[drec1500Madrid]

I was done with Sony after I bought a Vaio laptop some years ago. You pay a premium for their product and then they nickle and dime you by charging you some crazy amount for cables etc. Then, when I got more computer savvy, I saw that most of the components (hard drive, memory) was outsourced and of average quality. (my hard drive in fact, failed at one point). So that was it for Sony products in my home, TV's included.

They did it to themselves...All they had to do was throw in a firewire or usb cable in the box and they would have had a lifelong customer, instead, after forcing me to trek to the store to buy one I couldnt be bothered with them anymore.

[Paparaze]

Sony has been on the run down for a while. Its will soon be up for sale.

[Counterglow]

Reality finally caught up. Sony used to be renowned for building electronic equipment that could be dropped 30 feet onto pavement and still work. Now, they build landfill-bait. They've gradually switched from metal to plastic, and found ways to make one cheaply-made hunk of cheaply-made synthetic crap do the same job as three pieces of metal. Instead of a three-way speaker, you get a two-way with a fake port to make it look like the other one's still there. These days, Sony equipment will work great for a short time...then the plastic breaks and you've got a piece of garbage to deal with.

If they've finally posted a loss...it's about time.

[Snowspot]

Actually if you actually knew WTF u were talking about, you'd know that Sony lost so much because of their stakes in Blu-ray and the PS3. The PS3 was manufactured at a loss of over $200 a unit... on top of that, Blu-ray has not been the hit Sony expected. They actually make pretty reliable stuff, at least their videogame stuff anyway.

[jesuslovesObama]

Actually, Sony DOES make alot of crap, and they would sell a boatload of blu-ray if they dropped the price.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

SONY's reduction in quality is only one source of their decline. The biggest reason for the decline of SONY is because they use to be the Pantheon of innovation but now companies like Samsung are passing them technologically. SONY has been behind on wide screen technologies because they held on to the tube TV designs for far too long. Also SONY's obsession with propriety design has always been a thorn in their side.

[Counterglow]

Yeah...that and putting a rootkit on one of their CD's. That's pretty much guaranteed to get a consumer's back up.

[Tyrione]

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/news/20090113.html

``STATEMENT REGARDING MEDIA STORY ON SONY'S FINANCIAL RESULTS
January 13, 2009

Sony understands that a story appeared in the media regarding Sony's expectations on operating results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. Sony has made no announcement in this regard and at this time has no further comment.''

-----------------
In short, this story is goin' down.

Earnings Report slated for January 29, 2009.
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/info/presen/index.html
.

[FogBelter]

I read where some genius companies were starting to cut their employee's salaries to save money. What they don't understand is that their employee is the consumer for dozens of other companies, while the employees of other companies are their own consumer. So if the other companies decide to cut the salaries of their employees that means everybody's consumers have less to spend.

How is that good for business?

[AdV2k1]

It's all the fault of PS3 and most average people not caring about upgrading to Blu-Ray.

Everyone wanted DVD, not everyone has HD yet so why upgrade to Blu-Ray.

It was to soon to introduce that.

Sony expected to be market leader with PS3 and its a distant 3rd place. PSP sales are not doing so well either, and PS2 refuses to die which is profitable but doesn't help PS3 at all.

Every single PS3 sold is LOST REVENUE. THey just eat it up and eventually hoping software will get them out of the hole, and time will make it cheaper.
EVERY SINGLE Wii and DS sold make profit, and vast demand exists for it. Nintendo is doing a smart business, Sony used to be

[pieco]

Its Bed News, But hope Soon well.

http://look4leads.com/blogger/index.php?null

http://www.look4leads.com/

http://www.look4leads.com/forum/index.php

[Luca]

$1.1 Billion is a huge loss for this company. Very sad.

[streak of rin tin tin]

I'm off to watch "Tropic Thunder".

I hear Ben gives a stellar performance!