Mark Walton reports in ars technica:
Sony has already exited the PC business and spun off TVs. It also plans to split off its audio and video business, although it hasn't yet confirmed what it plans to do with mobiles other than to make less of them.
Last year we reported things were very bad indeed over at electronics giant Sony, and at first glance Sony's financials for its fiscal year ending March 31 2015 aren't all that rosy either. Despite reporting an overall annual operating income of ¥68.5 billion ($576 million), a big increase over last year's ¥26.5 billion ($222 million), the company still racked up a net loss of ¥126 billion ($1.05 billion). That's barely less than the $1.24 billion net loss posted last year.
However, strong PlayStation 4 and camera image sensor sales mean the company is predicting strong results for 2015, and expects to make ¥320 billion ($2.69 billion) in operating income and ¥140 billion ($1.1 billion) in net profit. For the 2014 fiscal year, Sony reported it had shipped 14.8 million PS4s. Combined with the 7.5 million shipped in the company's 2013 fiscal year (when the console was launched towards the tail end of it) total PS4s shipped are now 22.3 million. A few days ago, we reported that Microsoft's Xbox One sales faltered slightly in Q1 2015.
Sales of Sony's camera image sensors—which are used in several high-profile smartphones, including Apple's iPhone—jumped up 20 percent from 320 million units to 450 million units. The division brought in 16.5 percent more revenue and a 36 percent higher operating profit. These numbers mark the beginning of a turnaround for Sony, which has missed several of its earning targets over the past seven years, and a win for CEO Kaz Hirai's plans to overhaul the company.
That said, Sony still has some black holes in its portfolio to attend to, most of all its mobile and tablet business, which continues to bleed money. While smartphones sales remained largely flat, the division made an operating loss of ¥217.6 billion ($1.82 billion) thanks to a ¥176 billion ($1.47 billion) impairment charge, and restructuring costs from the sale of Visual Audio Intelligent Organizer (VAIO). The mobile division is also the only core division that Sony expects to lose money in 2015, forecasting an operating loss of ¥39 billion ($327 million).
As part of its Hirai's restructuring plans, Sony has already exited the PC business and spun off TVs. It also plans to split off its audio and video business, although it hasn't yet confirmed what it plans to do with mobiles other than to make less of them. Still, investors are happy with the way things are going: shares in the company have risen more than 30 percent during 2015.
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