Sony reports 95% slump in profits

29 January 2009 11:06 GMT / By Verity Burns

Sony has released figures for the quarter ending 31 December that show a 95% fall in net profit, showing all the more clearly how much the global slump has hit demand for things such as TVs and cameras.

Net profits were reportedly 10.4 billion yen (around £81.3 million) for the last three months of 2008, down from 200.2 billion yen (£1.5 billion) a year earlier, while operating losses were down at 17.96 billion yen (£140 million). Sales were also down by around 25%.

The figures are in line with the preliminary results disclosed last week, during which Sony also cut its annual outlook for the third time this business year.

Its latest forecast now stands at an operating loss of 260 billion yen (£2 billion) for the year ending 31 March, the company's first annual loss in 14 years and a very different story to the 475.3 billion yen (£3.7 billion) profit the previous year.

As for the company's games division, all of Sony's consoles saw a decline in sales in the latest quarter.

However more positively, despite PlayStation 3 sales being down by 44,000, games for the console were up by 14.8 million units.

Full tags

Biz, Sony, Results, Home Cinema, Gaming, Cameras