Sony reports quarterly loss of £1.3 Billion

Sony has posted a net loss of 158 billion yen (£1.3 billion) for its third financial quarter ended December 31, 2011, compared to a profit of 72.3 billion yen (£559 million) a year ago.

The firm said sales fell 17.4 percent year-over-year to 1.82 trillion yen (£15 billion), “primarily due to the impact of the floods in Thailand, deterioration in market conditions in developed countries, and unfavourable foreign exchange rates”.

The Consumer Products and Services division – which houses Sony’s PlayStation, TV, video, digital imaging, PC and mobile businesses – recorded a quarterly operating loss of 85.7 billion yen (£710.3 million), versus a profit of 63.5 billion yen (£526.3 million) for the same period last year. Sales fell 24.4 percent to 996.5 billion yen (£8.3 billion)

Sony said: “Categories contributing to the deterioration in operating results… include LCD televisions, reflecting a decline in unit selling prices that exceeded cost and expense reductions, and the game business, reflecting higher marketing costs to promote network service platforms and lower sales of PlayStation 3 hardware due to a strategic price reduction.”

The firm sold 6.5 million PS3s during the quarter, up from 6.3 million a year earlier, as well as 2.4 million PSPs, down from 3.6 million, and 900,000 PS2s, down from 2.1 million.

It also sold 66.2 million PS3 games, up from 57.6 million during the same period last year, 11.4 million PSP titles, down from 16.5 million, and 2.5 million PS2 games, down from 5.3 million.

Source: CVG