Published 17:10 IST, February 4th 2020
Sony raises forecast despite lagging video-game business
Fiscal third-quarter profit at Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. dipped to about half of what it was the previous year as its video game, networking and film businesses stumbled.
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Fiscal third-quarter profit at Japanese electronics and entertainment company Sony Corp. dipped to about half of what it was previous year as its video game, networking and film businesses stumbled.
Tokyo-based Sony, which makes PlayStation video-game consoles, Bravia TVs and Spider-Man films, reported Tuesday an October-December profit of 229.5 billion yen ($2.1 billion), down from 429 billion yen a year earlier.
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Quarterly sales rose 3% to 2.46 trillion yen ($22.6 billion).
Both quarterly profit and sales were better than FactSet forecasts.
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Sony raised its profit forecast for year through March 2020 to 590 billion yen ($5.4 billion), up from an earlier projection for 540 billion yen ($5 billion) profit.
That still trails 916 billion yen Sony earned previous fiscal year through March 2019.
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Sales and profit from Sony's PlayStation 4 business have been faltering. PlayStation 5 is set to go on sale later this year. An anuncement of an upgre for a machine that's been on sale several years tends to dampen sales of current model.
Sony's im sensors, used in a wide variety of smartphones and digital cameras, continued to be in demand, while sales of its electronics products including smartphones and TVs declined, company said.
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An unfavorable exchange rate also hurt earnings, it said.
Revenue from movies fell on-year partly because of strong performance previous year of “Vem,” a film about Marvel comics superhero, according to Sony.
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Higher sales from TV shows, including licensing revenue from series “ Crown,” were offset by higher expenses.
Sony's music operations benefited from publishing sales from acquisition of EMI as well as streaming revenue.
17:10 IST, February 4th 2020