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Sony's Q3 earnings are in: wider than expected full year loss, lowered sales projections

Sony already revealed Kazuo Hirai will take over for Howard Stringer as CEO and President April 1st last night, and with the big shocker out of the way it's time for the fiscal Q3 reports. After posting a net loss of $346 million last quarter, Sony is now expecting a bigger loss for 2011 than it had previously estimated, as well as lower sales. It's currently showing a net loss for the quarter of 159 billion yen ($2~ billion), or a $1.2 billion operating loss. Blame is put on a larger than expected effect from the flooding in Thailand, strong yen and weakness in cellphones. Sales for the quarter were about $23 billion, down 17.4 percent from the same quarter last year. The consumer products and services division (HDTVs, PS3s, etc.) in particular caught a brick, with an operating loss of over a billion dollars on sales that dropped 24 percent from last year. It recorded a loss on its sale of shares in the S-LCD venture with Samsung, LCD TVs sold for prices lower than its cost reductions, and the PlayStation 3 had the killer combo of higher marketing costs and lower unit sales. Check the PDF and slides linked below for more bad news. We'll let you know what we hear on the earnings call in a few, but until then, Kaz, may we suggest bringing in Jimmy Rollins for tips on breaking out of a slump?