business

Sony forecasts Y230 bil loss, 1,000 job cuts

11 Comments
By ELAINE KURTENBACH

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Sony expects its annual loss to swell and has canceled dividends for the first time in more than half a century after writing down the value of its troubled smartphone business.

Citing intense competition, especially from Chinese rivals, Sony said Wednesday it anticipates a net loss of 230 billion yen for the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2015. Its previous forecast was for a 50 billion yen net loss.

“Meanwhile, Apple and other manufacturers are launching strong, innovative products. The changes are very rapid and dramatic.”

Same old song -- "We're going to lose more money than we thought" and "It's all because of those darn Chinese companies that actually compete, rather than what happens here in Japan", and "Those damn Americans keep giving the consumer innovative products". Sad commentary indeed.

-1 ( +2 / -4 )

What's surprising is the company's still in business. So-called 'writedowns' of $2.3-billion show an incredible failure of management. Sounds like Sony's a lousy Vegas bet and not anything like the innovative company it was decades ago. One more reason to not buy their flat-screens, and I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Sony had 2 main problems. First one was that they had a very large set of products with weird names. Example. Xperia LHZ4 or Sony Ericsson W810i while other companies had the S5 or 5S. The other problem is that those products are not reliable like their main Sony Z1 or the PS3. Another example is.. I have a Sony MDR-V6 headphone. It has to problems. They could have labelled it the Sony earthsound V6 or something like that. And the other problem is that for 20 years they have keep the crappy cushion earpads that wont last a year. Why not change it and make it better? Just dump the models?.Come on sony. Another example was the Sony xperia Z ultra. Why no Led flash for a US$600 phone. Theres no excuse. Also it doesnt come with a stylus. Its so easy to put one. Stop think8ng like you want and GIVE people what they want.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

year after year of losses yet they're still in business.

Thanks to secret Japanese government money.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

There was the day when Sony TVs ruled the world...... you just could not beat a Sony for picture quality. But Sony always had vision problems, they rode the Beta video recorder horse far too long.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

it is matter of the time that gigantic SONY company would go back to a little factory that used to be around 1960s.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The Xperia - Sony's recent models at least - are actually really good phones, or certainly superior to the new iphone that people are lining up for...you can not beat good marketing can you. Marketing is where Sony has let itself down and as a previous poster elucidated they just do not know how to name a product.

They also have pretty large cash reserves, so they can probably keep on losing money, but for how long I do not know.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"230 billion yen" loss and ONLY 1000 jobs cut?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Poor marketing Sony. + poor and late understanding of smart phone market.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Get out of selling TV's, smartphones and concentrate on gaming & movies period. Sony should strive to become "specialist" in things that they're profitable in rather than being "generalist" and loosing money. Good luck.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

CoconutE3, I agree. Sony has to drop the dead weight in terms of uncompetitive products. I own a PS4 and am still amazed by the system after six months of ownership.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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