[1]Japan's Sony said on Thursday it swung to a net loss in the fiscal first quarter on the impact of the March 11 earthquake, and cut its profit forecast by 25 per cent on weak TV sales and a strong yen.
Blaming the impact of the March disasters and a soft electronics business environment, Sony slipped to a 15.5 billion yen ($191 million) net loss in April-June, when it suffered a major hacking attack on its online networks.
The figure compared to a 25.7 billion yen profit in the same period a year ago.
In the three-month period, Sony's consolidated operating profit plunged 59 percent from a year before to 27.50 billion yen on sales of 1.49 trillion yen, down 10 percent.
Sony lowered its May forecast for an 80 billion yen net profit in the current fiscal year ending March 2012 to 60 billion yen, citing a stronger Japanese currency and lower projected LCD television sales in the face of sagging demand and fierce competition.
Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said the TV business -- a long-time laggard -- suffered from economic weakness in the US and Europe, exposing the company to foreign exchange pressures in highly competitive markets.
"We think we can be profitable at the current exchange rate levels," said Kato at a news conference.
"We had almost no negative impact from the dollar, but the euro is still an issue for us." The CFO added that Sony would continue trying to move more operations out of Japan, where possible, as part of a 20-year trend.
The company lowered its projection for TV sales for the year to 22 million sets, from 27 million. It revised its sales forecast lower by four percent to 7.2 trillion yen.
The Tokyo-based maker of PlayStation consoles and Bravia television sets was forced to shutter plants in Japan after the March quake and tsunami disaster battered supply chains, damaged facilities and dampened consumer demand.
While Japanese firms have been seen to stage a quicker-than-expected recovery from the disasters, the rise of the yen has hurt exporters, eroding repatriated overseas earnings.
The unit hit a postwar dollar high in March and has also risen against the euro.
Sony suffered a net loss of $3.2 billion in the year ended March, its third consecutive year in the red, but has forecast a return to the black this year.
The March earthquake hit after the electronics and entertainment giant underwent major restructuring under chairman Howard Stringer -- slashing thousands of jobs, selling facilities and turning to suppliers for parts -- after seeing losses pile up as the financial crisis hit demand.
A data breach forced Sony to shut down its PlayStation Network and Qriocity services in April after being hit by hackers.
In what was seen as one of the biggest data breaches since the advent of the Internet, 100 million accounts were affected and Sony said it could not rule out that millions of credit card numbers may have been compromised. It has since restored its online services.
Analysts say the breach could cost it around $1 billion, and that the attacks threaten deeper damage to Sony's brand image and its efforts to link its gadgets to an online network of games, movies and music.
Sony is set to launch its highly anticipated portable touchscreen PlayStation Vita gaming handset later this year.
It said its movies division saw a 9.3 percent year-on-year increase in sales to 144.4 billion yen in the quarter with the home entertainment release of films from the previous fiscal year such as The Green Hornet, Battle: Los Angeles and romantic comedy Just Go With It.
Its music division saw a 0.6 percent decrease in sales to 109.6 billion yen despite big sellers in the quarter such as Adele's 21, Beyonce's 4 and the Foo Fighters' Wasting Light.
Sony shares closed down 1.12 percent at 2,013 yen on Thursday, around their lowest level since March 2009.
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