Sony Losses Hit $1 billion Milestone

It seems that global recession has lead to a sharp slide in revenues for electronics giant Sony which on Thursday reported a loss of around $1 billion in the last fiscal.

Incidentally it is the first annual loss that Sony has reported in last 14 years and it makes for a grim reading as compared to its figures for 2007 when it had posted over $3 billion in profits.  

Overall sales were reportedly down by 13 per cent as compared to the year before with major verticals like electronics and films going down by 17 percent each; in addition even its games division failed to to beat the trend and was down by 18 percent with sales of its widely popular PS2 consoles registering a fall of nearly 50 percent. 

Another factor that added to Sony’s woes was the Japanese currency which appreciated against most other currencies which made its products costly as compared to its competitors. The Xbox for example is priced in USD (ed: but then, the Nintendo Wii is also hit by the strong Yen).

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With the recession showing no signs of recovering in the coming months, chances of Sony making a sharp turn towards profitability looks rather dim and the management at Sony will have their task cut out in steering the organisation toward success during this turbulent period.  

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