Sony released it financials today and things do not look good. The once, immensely powerful, electronics juggernaut has posted a year to year loss of $5.7 billion (457 billion yen). This is not really news because earlier this year the speculation that this was going to happened prompted the company to hire Kazuo Hirai to run the company. One of the first things that he did was to consolidate departments and announce that due to consolidation and the selling of some companies under the Sony umbrella that they would be shedding approximately 10,000 jobs.
The loss can almost directly be linked to two major disasters, one being the massive earthquake that caused the reactor meltdown in Japan and flooding in Thailand which disrupted some suppliers. The major things that contributed to this that weren’t acts of god are the complete assault that Sony has suffered from Samsung TV’s and Apple devices. Sony cannot seem to keep up, or realize that their stuff is too darn expensive. I would like Sony stuff, but it’s so bad now that when I see a Sony tag on a TV I just keep walking because I know I can’t afford it.
There is a little bit of good news though. Sony had predicted a year loss of $6.5 billion (520 billion yen). “This year remains crucial for a recovery in our electronics business,” Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said, adding that the effort to reduce TV business losses was on track. “A fifth straight year of losses should never be tolerated.”