Tokyo — Toshiba’s digital products were a bright spot during its fiscal first quarter, where it posted a corporate net loss and lower net sales.
Corporately, Toshiba blamed its disappointing first-quarter performance on the slower U.S. economy, higher crude-oil prices and the yen’s appreciation against the dollar.
In its first quarter, ended June 30, net sales were $15.3 billion, down 3 percent compared to the previous year’s first quarter, while the company posted a net loss of $109.5 million compared with net income of $194.3 million in the prior year. (The U.S. dollar was valued at 106 yen in Toshiba’s statement.)
But in its digital products segment, despite its withdrawal from the HD DVD format, solid sales in TV and hard disk drives gave it a 15.5 percent increase in operating income, to $124.5 million.
Sales for the segment were down 3 percent, to $6.08 billion. While mobile phones posted lower sales, Toshiba’s PC and digital media network businesses, along with the aforementioned TV and hard-disk-drive products, enabled the division to post an operating profit.
