Tokyo
– Sony reported higher sales and a profit increase in its fiscal third quarter due
to cost-cutting measures and improved performances in its CE and networked
products businesses.
In its third quarter, ended Dec. 31, sales in yen were up 3.9
percent to $24.3 billion when converted to dollars. Operating income for the
quarter was $1.6 billion, or 146.1 billion yen, compared with a loss of 18
billion yen for the prior year’s quarter.
Net income attributable to Sony stockholders was $861 billion, or
79.2 billion yen for the quarter, up from the prior year’s 10.37 billion yen.
Products contributing to the increase in operating profits
include Sony’s Bravia LCD TVs, reflecting the benefits of cost-reduction moves
and Cyber-shot compact digital cameras, the company said. Operating profits
were hurt, excluding restructuring charges, but including system LSIs for the
game business and Handycam video cameras.
In its consumer products and devices segment, sales and operating
revenue for the fiscal third quarter were $10.5 billion, down 10.7 percent in
yen from the previous year, Sony said. But the segment reported an operating
profit of 49.4 billion yen (or $537 million), compared with an operating loss
of 19.8 million yen n the prior year.
In its networked products and services segment, sales were up 1.9
percent in yen to 606.1 billion yen, or $6.6 billion, compared with the prior
year’s 594.9 billion yen. The segment reported a 19.4 billion yen operating
profit, or $211 million, for the quarter, compared with the prior year’s 5.9
billion yen loss for the quarter.
Sony said that higher Vaio PC sales helped the segment’s bottom
line. In the game business, despite a decrease in PS2 hardware and software
unit sales and PSP hardware unit sales, profitability was relatively unchanged
due to an improvement in the cost of PS3 hardware.
