Sony's Impressive Earnings Still Sour For Mobile Division

Sony's latest earnings report wasn't bad news, as you might have expected. In fact, it was their best earnings announcement in quite some time, even with the crippling hack, which cost them $15 million. Across the board, Sony was up, and shipped more Xperia smartphones than they ever have, and moved a lot of PlayStation 4s. Sony also experienced growth in sales of sensors. Still, Sony is primed to lay off several thousand by the end the financial year, which closes in March.

Ahead of this quarter, Sony was expected to announce a $300 million-plus operating loss at years end. Instead, they are poised to report a $170 million operating profit. Quite the turnaround, it would seem, but Sony has a track record of peaks and valleys. Sony is still expected to announce an overall net loss of $1.4 billion on the year, but that's due to a large write-down on their mobile operation.

Part of their turnaround comes by virtue of increased sales, notably in mobile. Sony shipped 11.9 million Xperia devices this quarter — their most ever. Still, the company is expected to lay off 2,100 employees in their mobile division alone by the end of March. Sony is still dour about mobile, cutting their year-end forecast for shipments to 39.2 million units, suggesting they'll only sell 8 million devices or so next quarter. That would be a 9% downturn versus last year.

Sony's standalone TV division was up, though. A 10% uptick in orders should lead to a $100 million profit on the year. That could signal the direction Sony will take with mobile, now that they've sold off their PC business and Sony Online Entertainment branch. CEO Kazuo Hirai is focussed on returning the company to profitability, and their efforts with TV might pave the way for mobile while their prowess with optics sensors could bring in money form a multitude of sources.

Source: The Wall Street Journal