Sony Q1 Profits Tumble

Sony reported a group operating profit of 3 billion yen ($24.3 million), way short of analysts' expectations of a profit of somewhere between 26 billion ($210.4 million) and 37 billion yen ($299.4 million). The company posted a profit of 30.59 billion yen ($247.5 million) in the same period last year. The electronics division, which reported a loss of 18 billion yen ($145.7 million) for the same period last year due in large part to development and marketing costs related to the Playstation 2, improved its losses to 3.13 billion yen ($25.3 million) for this year. Sony has slashed its earnings forecast for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends in March 2002, to 250 billion yen ($2.02 billion) down from 300 billion yen ($2.43 billion).