Sony in transition: a new CEO drives the storied company back into profit – The Verge

Sony’s inability to sell smartphones is costing it $1.7 billion

2014-09-17T02:46:21-04:00

Sony has just revised its annual earnings forecast with the addition of a major 180 billion yen (roughly $1.7 billion) "goodwill impairment charge." This relates to Sony's Mobile Communications (MC) business, where the company says it had overestimated revenues from smartphones and tablets and has now decided to alter its strategy and accept the loss. As a result, Sony now anticipates overall losses for the fiscal year ending next March to be over $2.1 billion.

Sony has been in rebuilding mode for a number of years now, looking to narrow down its focus around Kaz Hirai's One Sony strategy and become a more cohesive and agile company. Centra …

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Sony forecasts further losses despite strong PS4 and smartphone sales

2014-05-14T02:28:50-04:00

Sony is back to losing ways after recording a ¥128.4 billion ($1.25 billion) net loss in its 2013 fiscal year. The Japanese tech giant's operating income was ¥26.5 billion ($257 million) off ¥7.77 trillion ($75.4 billion) in sales. Twelve months ago Sony reported a ¥43 billion net profit for 2012, its first in five years, but after these 2013 results Sony is now forecasting a second consecutive loss for the current financial year: it expects to lose ¥50 billion ($489 million) by the end of next March.

PS4 and smartphones boost Sony's revenues

Sales were up 14.3 percent year-on-year, which Sony puts down to the weakening of the yen, a "signif …

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Sony cutting 5,000 jobs, reverts forecast to loss

2014-02-06T02:02:50-05:00

Sony has reversed its prediction of a full-year profit, now expecting to make a net loss of ¥110 billion ($1.1 billion) in the year ending March 2014. It's the second quarter in a row that Sony has cut its guidance; the company slashed expectations to ¥30 billion from ¥50 billion in October. Sony hasn't changed its revenue forecast, however - the swing to loss is down to depreciation and amortization along with restructuring costs incurred by selling off the VAIO PC business and spinning off TVs into a separate unit. Operating income for Q3 was ¥90 billion yen ($860 million) and net profit was ¥27 billion ($257 million) off sales of ¥2.41 tr …

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Sony will shrink movie division in order to keep it alive

2013-11-22T03:25:01-05:00

kaz hirai (verge stock)

Under Kaz Hirai's leadership, Sony has seen its mobile business turn into a profit driver and its mirrorless cameras competing with professional-class DSLRs. While Sony's hardware manufacturing credentials have been restored, however, other parts of the company remain in a troubled state. Chief among them is the entertainment division, which Sony is announcing plans to restructure and downsize in the wake of some outspoken criticism and mounting losses.

Sony Entertainment has been subject to an impassioned plea from one of Sony's big shareholders, who wanted to see it detached from the monolithic Japanese company and offered up on the stock …

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Sony cuts profit outlook by 40 percent despite strong smartphone sales

2013-10-31T02:21:47-04:00

Sony made an operating profit of ¥14.8 billion ($151 million) in the second quarter of its fiscal year, as strong smartphone sales and a weak yen partially offset poor performance in the entertainment division. The company's mobile division brought in ¥418.6 billion yen ($4.27 billion), a 39 percent year-on-year increase, but Sony's net loss overall was 19.3 billion ($197 million).

Entertainment business under increased scrutiny

The pictures division made an operating loss of ¥17.8 billion yen ($181 million) despite slightly increased revenues; Sony notes the poor performance of White House Down compared with The Amazing Spider-Man, its equi …

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Sony cedes US smartphone market to competition, for now

2013-10-11T04:16:35-04:00

sony stock bow

Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has been speaking to the press over in Japan today, where he's outlined his company's priorities for the near term. Pivotal to Sony's improving fortunes is the company's mobile division, whose success in the last quarter helped offset other losses in driving Sony to a moderate profit. Kaz underlines that importance, but argues that Sony must build on its current strengths first before looking to expand elsewhere.

"Our biggest priority is maintaining our share in Japan or increasing it … But getting into the U.S. market requires a lot of resources and marketing, so we have to go one step at a time."

Japan and Europe, acco …

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Why is Sony still in the entertainment business?

2013-08-12T13:00:01-04:00

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Sony slammed the door in the face of a major shareholder last week when it rejected billionaire investor Daniel Loeb's proposal to spin off part of the company's entertainment business. Loeb, whose Third Point LLC hedge fund owns nearly 7 percent of Sony, had suggested selling between 15 to 20 percent of the music and film divisions in order to raise capital, sharpen the company's focus, and boost its long-suffering stock price. But CEO and president Kazuo Hirai, in an open letter to Loeb, says the company's board unanimously voted against the proposal and called 100 percent ownership of the divisions "fundamental to Sony's success."

For CEO …

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Sony rejects investor proposal to spin off entertainment business

2013-08-05T20:08:00-04:00

kaz hirai sony stock

Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai has written an open letter rejecting billionaire investor Daniel Loeb's proposal that the company sell part of its entertainment business. Loeb, whose Third Point LLC owns about 7 percent of Sony, had pressed the Japanese giant to offer between 15 and 20 percent of Sony Entertainment to shareholders; the investor believed this could boost stock price by up to 60 percent.

"Continuing to own 100% of our entertainment business is fundamental to Sony's success."

In a letter today, however, Hirai says that he and Sony's board "strongly believe that continuing to own 100% of our entertainment business is fundamental to Sony's …

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Improving smartphone sales and a weaker yen help Sony to $35 million quarterly profit

2013-08-01T02:07:33-04:00

Sony Make Believe STOCK

It may not be quite the windfall profit we're used to seeing from Apple or Samsung, but Sony has kept its financials on the positive side of the ledger over the last financial quarter - owing primarily to "strong" smartphone sales and a favorable shift in currency exchange rates. In the three months between April and June of this year, Sony saw both a "significant increase in unit sales" of its Android smartphones and an improved average selling price per handset. That's at the heart of the company's improved profitability.

Sony's mobile division swings from loss to profit as Android fortunes improve

The company's camera division didn't do q …

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Sony mulls investor proposal to sell off movie, TV, and music units

2013-05-21T20:41:03-04:00

hollywoodsign

With Sony under increasing pressure to get out of the entertainment business and get back to making great gadgets, company managers have begun to evaluate whether to sell off part of the unit that oversees movies, TV and music, according to a report today from Nikkei, a Japan-based newspaper.

The move follows comments made last week by Daniel Loeb, the US billionaire investor who owns $1.1 billion worth of Sony's stock, equal to about six percent of the company's outstanding shares. He said last week that he wanted Sony's leadership to sell off as much as 20 percent of the company's entertainment holdings, which includes Sony Pictures and So …

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