Sony’s Financial Fortunes Start to Change (But It’s...

Sony’s Financial Fortunes Start to Change (But It’s Still Making a Loss)

By Jamie Condliffe

Sony has announced its second-quarter financial results today and, while they still make grim reading taken alone, it looks like the Japanese tech giant is experiencing at least a small change in its fortunes.

While the compnay has announced a loss of $198 million on $20.5 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2012, that’s far better than the same period last year, which clocked up a loss of $350 million. Perhaps most impressively, the improvement comes on the back of plenty of hiccups at Sony — including issues in China that apparently cost $375 million.

Of course, new CEO Kazuo Hirai took over earlier this year with the intention of focussing Sony’s attentions to its core business. Sadly, some areas of focus — including gaming and imaging — still aren’t performing as well as hoped. Sales in gaming fell 16 percent, for instance, while imaging fell 17 percent.

Mobile devices and PCs, however, buck that trend. Sony’s Mobile Products and Communications sales, which includes PCs, almost doubled in the second qaurter of 2012. In reality that’s down to the acquisition of its ex-partner’s share of Sony Ericsson. Still, you have to take what you can get.

All in, despite improvements over the past year, Sony’s still stuck in the financial mire. Kazuo Hirai’s decision to focus perhaps needs to be ratcheted up if it’s to have any dramatic impact. [Sony via Verge]

Image by Steve.M~ under Creative Commons license

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