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Sony expects to post a fiscal-year loss of more than $2 billion
- Thread starter EdReedFan20
- Start date
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hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
titiklabingapat
Member
Kaz, is that you?
If the studios make money....
nhlducks35
Member
LaserBuddha
Member
Sony spent years making overpriced, underpowered, shitty android phones, and now that they've gotten around to redeeming themselves with the most recent sets, people act like they don't know what the hell you're talking about when speaking of their poor reputation.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Time for Microsoft to acquire Sony.
Duckhuntdog
Member
So, he's Iwata level effective then???
Not sure if serious? The Xperia line is one of the top tier quality handsets around right now. The Xperia Z3 Compact is a beast
i looked up everything for roughly the past 15 years:
kunitake andō becomes president of sony corp.
fy ending march 2001: $134 million net income
fy ending march 2002: $115 million net income
fy ending march 2003: $963 million net income
fy ending march 2004: $851 million net income
fy ending march 2005: $1.5 billion net income
half-decade: average yearly net income: $712 million
ryōji chūbachi becomes president of sony corp.
fy ending march 2006: $1 billion net income
fy ending march 2007: $1 billion net income
fy ending march 2008: $3.6 billion net income
fy ending march 2009: $1 billion net loss
howard stringer becomes president of sony corp.
fy ending march 2010: $3.1 billion net loss
half-decade: average yearly net income: $500 million
fy ending march 2011: $2 billion net loss
kaz hirai becomes president of sony corp.
fy ending march 2012: $4 billion net loss
fy ending march 2013: $1 billion net income
fy ending march 2014: $640 million net loss
fy ending march 2015 (projected): $2 billion net loss
half-decade: average yearly net loss: $1.5 billion
what was going on in the last decade? why were they cycling through presidents like that? is that normal behavior? was it a knee-jerk reaction to sudden losses?
I think the streamlining in terms of laptops et al they are currently doing will start to return them to profitability around 2016 tbh. 2005-2012 just saw them overstretch themselves and lose a focus.
hipbabboom
Huh? What did I say? Did I screw up again? :(
There's no way that would be allowed right? Would such a redundant acquisition of business units be allowed? I have nothing against Microsoft but I dont want to believe this.
Iwata is a good man
Sidewinder
Member
They'd make more money if they owned less studios. The PS4 doesn't need exclusives to sell really.
$11.75 billion total loss over the past 7 years... I'd hate to see what a struggling business looks like.
Idk I just don't see Sony products resonating with consumers as well as they used to. They make amazing hardware and it's a shame they were mismanaged for so long.
And in 2 years you can change your prediction yet again. Are you an Analyst?
Lolno I'm an 18 year old business student. I know jack shit, I made that prediction when I was 16 and pulled it outta my ass. I just don't seem them becoming consistently profitable anytime soon so I don't think they can keep bleeding billions for that long. But again I'm still learning about this stuff so I don't know how long they'll last.
Mmmmmm yummy fudge.
Anyway, what's the cause of this one? Is it the Vaio write-off or something similar? Seems like they overpredicted their phones revenue and finally sucked down the loss, like what Nintendo did for the WiiU earlier this year?
Kill Your Masters
Member
Aye, looks like the smartphone division is also one of the main culprits here.
​Sony expects losses to quadruple because of its smartphones
In terms of the Playstation division, they are doing well. The couple of years pre-launch and usually initial year or so are always difficult as you factor in R&D costs / Launch Marketing etc. Unfortunately Sony's problem is that they have their fingers in too many pies. They really need to cut down the sheer number of models they launch under their other divisions and really focus on what they do well.
Makes you wonder what the hell went down at Sony. I mean, wasn't the mobile division profitable past three years? I even remember the division having upward trend from YOY in regards of sales and profits. They weren't making big numbers but profit nonetheless.
haha, the first reaction from my mind as well. Hope Sony can recover soon.
The problem is Xperia Z line is doing great. Anything else is a throwaway product that seems to underperform. In 2012 Sony was known for its mid-range and entry level phones. These days those are exactly the type of phones you should avoid. They fucked up majorly this year in those segments because they thought "ah sure we'll just release a lot of models and that should increase our marketshare". The Z line is fine...but the problem is that's the only line that IS fine in the smartphone division.
They flooded the market with cheap low-end and mid range phones that had razor thin profit margins that didn't sell. That's what happened. They also stubbornly refused to engage the NA market and gave their phones confusing names that differ only by a single letter.
They should focus on the Z and Z compact lines. Those actually sell and have positive consumer feedback. Jettison everything else.
As as big Sony phone fan (currently a proud Xperia Z1 compact owner), I'll tell you what the problem is - a quick Google Search will show you 40-50+ makes and models released in the last 3-4 years.
That's crazy for the scale of some of these launches. They're competing against themselves as well as their rivals with some of their products.
Exactly, sorry the guy I was replying to seemed to imply 'LOL Sony phones, they suck'. They don't. Even the mid-range ones assessed on their own merits were OK. They just oversaturated an already oversaturated market.
zomgbbqftw
Banned
On the one hand it is a goodwill impairment, so it won't really effect the bottom line, on the other it means Sony have effectively declared that they aren't going to make significant profit from the division any time soon.
On wonders why they didn't do this with VAIO back in 2012 or earlier. Personally I don't think any of their electronics divisions can claim to have long term profitably and this should have happened years ago.
Otherwise the projection is just 180bn yen lower than before so the actual operating outlook hasn't changed significantly. One does wonder why this charge had been included in the Operating results though, surely this does not count as an operating cost, rather a one off impairment, especially since they are writing off the entirety of the goodwill associated with the mobile division.
On wonders why they didn't do this with VAIO back in 2012 or earlier. Personally I don't think any of their electronics divisions can claim to have long term profitably and this should have happened years ago.
Otherwise the projection is just 180bn yen lower than before so the actual operating outlook hasn't changed significantly. One does wonder why this charge had been included in the Operating results though, surely this does not count as an operating cost, rather a one off impairment, especially since they are writing off the entirety of the goodwill associated with the mobile division.
Oh, ok. I have only seen them selling the flagship models here, so I thought they were already focusing only on the premium phones. Z2 is easily the best phone I have ever owned. The build quality alone is such enormous step ahead the competition.
Yeah it is quite strange. It's almost as if the new leadership in the division was basically given a clean slate to start over again with a "it can't possibly get any worse" mentality. Seeing that you mention that it is Kaz himself taking over this, I imagine he would like to protect himself against a failure (ie needing to take an impairment loss again in the future while he's at helm) and to be able to maximise on his success (ie every bit of profit the division makes from now on basically is an added bonus).
It could also point towards the fact that the manufacturing pipeline for the next 12 months or more is already full with lots of products that Sony has no faith in (like the Xperia T, V or J that received almost no marketing push back in 2012).
The problem here is that this is yet another restructuring and change of strategy in the mobile division. SE went through at least 1 since the smartphone are began, then Sony changed its strategy after the buyout (finally offering flagships etc) and now again we are at a restructuring point.
MasterChef420
Banned
Maybe amazon will buy sony. Make the first gaming/phone handheld!
LyleLanley
Banned
speculawyer
Member
They could not have even bought Minecraft for the amount they lost.
That means nothing.
That means nothing.
How soon we forget...
And Xperia Play. (sort of)
Add music and cameras there too.
They are making the best phones at the moment with the Z2 and Z3.
They are already expanding into real estate, and are planning starting various new business divisions. Panasonic did something similar and they have managed to become profitable again.
SliceSabre
Banned
Even for a huge corp like Sony losing $2 billion still stings unless they're sitting on some massive horde of cash.
zomgbbqftw
Banned
The mid range strategy can be made to work, the problem is that the old management are too stuck to Sony as a high end brand so even dud phones like the T3 sell for £299. No one in their right mind is going to spend £299 on the T3 and Sony are confirming that view today. However, instead of cutting prices and targeting a volume business they have decided that what they need to do is rationalise their mid range offering. That will allow them yo cut costs but it won't increase sales, Sony isn't good value for money in the mid range sector. Every single one of their mid range devices could use a £100/120 price cut except the T2 Ultra which is competitively priced at £285.
The other issue is half arsing the lower mid range phones, the M2 has a 960x540 screen with a low DPI rating. Putting in a HD screen and 8mp camera and calling it the T3 Compact would have been the better strategy. Worse still the M2 is pretty expensive for what is on offer compared to the Moto G which is in the same price bracket. Again poor value for money because the old management want to stick to this image of Sony as a high end brand that commands a brand premium like Apple.
I made my views on the Z3 tablet compact pretty clear in the thread and I believe this write down vindicates that view. Android tablets are mid range products regardless of how well a company tries to make them premium products, coming in at a higher price than the iPad Mini retina means they will sell very few units and then be left scratching their heads as to why that happened just like this MRP.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
Yet another fiscal year of profit loss isn't a problem? I don't think you should ever be in business. Also Activision made most of the profit off of "Destany," not Sony. And DriveClub most likely won't make a billion profit or anywhere near close to "Destany's" profits. This isn't a console war, this is a company losing yet another shit ton of money. >.>
They won't let go of their Camera division.
Too many companies rely on Sony's sensors nowadays. DSLR, Mobile Phone, Mirrorless.
Sony seem to have good engineers, pity about their middle management
I remember being worried that this thing would kill the Gameboy. I was such a stupid kid.How soon we forget...
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