So reported the Wall Street Journal Wednesday as Sony beat expectations by a wide margin on its recent quarter, and outlook for the year.
Sony told investors to expect an operating profit of $170 million (20 billion yen) after previously predicting a loss of $340 million for the year ending March 31. It credited strong sales of products such as the PlayStation 4 and cost cutting.
After decades of losses, Sony’s TV unit is expected to report an operating profit of about $1.1 million.
However, all is not rosy. Sony also announced it would cut another 1,100 jobs in its mobile phone division. Its total number of employees has fallen since 2008 from 180,500 to 140,900.
And due to a write down on its phone division, the company is still predicting heavy losses overall for the year.
The Journal stated, “Sony watchers remain cautious because the company has repeatedly tantalized them with one or two strong quarters, only to fall back into crisis. Aside from image sensors and game consoles, few Sony business lines have shown growth potential.”
Then again, for its recent quarter ended in December, Sony’s net profit more than tripled to $758 million and beat analyst expectations by 300 percent. All this, while Sony suffered a hacking attack on its movie division.
Also, while Sony competes with the iPhone in smartphones it provides image sensors to the iPhone, and so benefits from its sales.
See the full Wall Street Journal story here.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
