Sony Profits Soar Despite PlayStation 2

Sony officials have surprised the market by posting an unexpectedly large profit for its first quarter, as the weakness of the yen boosts the value of overseas sales. The company announced a group profit of ¥23.3 billion ($208.4m) in the three months ended June 30 – a huge increase on last year’s figure of ¥1.1 billion ($9.8m) and well above market expectations of around ¥4 billion ($35.8m). However, the company’s game division slipped into the red with a recorded loss of ¥2.9 billion ($25.9m) for the quarter – hit by high research and development costs for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable. This result is likely to be a one off though, with software shipments actually increasing to 38 million world-wide, compared to 31 million at the same time last year. Hardware shipments are well down to 0.71 million, from 2.65 million at the same time last year, but this is put down to a peculiarity in shipment timings and inventory shortages. Officials have not altered the company’s full year estimates, which are expected to see an overall operating profit of ¥160 billion ($1.4bn), after discounting ¥130 billion ($1.2bn) in restructuring costs. Source: Forbes