For a huge chunk of this site's life, we've reported on Sony's financial losses. You could guarantee that each quarter without fail, the firm would be in the red. But ever since Kaz Hirai took the helm, the company's trajectory has started to change. And, while it's nowhere near the juggernaut that it once was, it's doing pretty well at the minute.
You've probably read elsewhere that smartphone sales are declining around the globe, and that did impact its image sensors business ever so slightly. However, strong performance in movies, music, and games pushed it towards a 33 per cent surge in net income. It made a total of ¥120.1 billion ($997 million) for the quarter ending 31st December.
And its game division performed the best, raking in profits of ¥40.2 billion ($332 million) after shipping 8.4 million PlayStation 4 consoles globally over the holiday period. It still expects to sell 17.5 million units for the financial year ending in March, despite the delay of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End into its next fiscal year. Other non-gaming success stories included Adele's new album and the latest James Bond flick.
These results will please Kaz Hirai greatly, as he's been slowly transforming Sony into a content company. Hardware still does decent business for the firm, but the organisation's cut down on the number of consumer electronics that it creates, and it's looking much leaner as a result. The organisation now expects to report its highest annual profit in eight years soon.
And that's caused stocks to rise and analysts to recommend the Japanese giant as a safe investment again. We must be clear: Sony is not the company that it once was, and probably never will be again. But given how dire things looked under the leadership of Howard Stringer, there's simply no doubt now that Kaz Hirai's turned things around.
[source sony.net, via bloomberg.com]
Comments 7
I think Sony had too many fingers in too many pies they are starting to streamline more and compartmentalise the companies into different sections. They alsospend time and money developing products for very niche markets which never seem to sell well. Movies wise they are very hit and miss but they have been involved in some good TV shows.
The games part has always done well masking how badly other parts have done. They had massive losses for so many years if they are finally turning it around that's good news. But I still would not be buying stocks in Sony.
@dryrain Yeah, agreed. It always used to baffle me when you'd see their announcements at CES and they'd have hundreds of different models all eating into each other.
This year's CES presser was a much better from that perspective: they had a flagship camera, TV, etc - but not hundreds of the same thing.
They seem to make quite a lot of movies these days, quite a lot of flops too. Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, Pixels and The 5th Wave appears to be flopping too.
That's awesome news, sounds like they transitioned out of the big hardware business just in time.
@bad-muthaAdebisi some of their movies choices have been questionable for a few years now. I think they are now making less movies each year so maybe that will cut out some of the mistakes.
Under Kaz Hirai I think Sony has returned to the original philosophy of the 80s. Howard stringer was a monies man - cared about finances, profit, less about the products. Kaz and the current gen have a passion for innovation and it's products, and the 'right' price for consumers. It reminds me of Apple starting as a passionate innovative force, then Jobs replaced by a 'monies' man losing consumer share and confidence, then Jobs returning to fire up the passion within its teams. I feel Sony has that burning innovative, caring passion again Great signs of a growing company!
Well done Kaz Hirai - good businessman. @get2sammyb same - never knew which model to get and I'm a Sony phone fan.
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