annual report
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Sony posts another huge annual loss, but PS3 sales are up
Sony just posted its yearly results today, and while a ¥40.8 billion ($439 million) loss is never a good thing, it's at least a marked improvement from last year's staggering $1 billion drop into the red, which was the company's first loss in 14 years. LCD TVs and cameras were Sony's big electronics sellers, while PS3 sales went up to 13 million from 10.1 million last year -- and hey, Sony's console actually became profitable at the end of the year as production costs have gone down. Now for the bad news: PSP sales were down to 9.9m from 14.4 last year, with game sales dropping to 44.4m from 50.3m units, while PS2 hardware went down to 7.2m from 7.7m units and PS2 software fell sharply from 83.5m units to 35.7m units. That's not completely unexpected, as the PS2 can't last forever and the PSP is getting long in the tooth, but it means that Sony faces some serious pressure to hit its target of 15m PS3s sold this year to pick up the slack and help it hit its goal of posting a ¥50 billion ($541 million) profit next year. Let's hope that Move controller lives up to the hype, right? Sony's also counting on 3D to help it get there, and wonder of wonders, it also expects Sony Ericsson to hit profitability, so that X10 mini pro had better be a big improvement over the Xperia X10. We'll see if Sir Howard can keep all these various ships going in the right direction while still keeping the rest of Sony's diverse operations (like its profitable life insurance business) in line -- it should be an interesting year.
Sony posts $1b loss, first in 14 years
Here's the good news: Sony's ¥98.9b ($1.03b) loss is slightly less than the $1.1b the company told us it would lose in January. Sadly, all of the other news is bad, starting with the fact that the company just lost a freaking billion dollars, its first loss in 14 years, and it's predicting a similar $1.1b loss next year. Electronics sales were down 17 percent, the Sony-Ericsson phone partnership is struggling, and game division sales dropped 18 percent primarily due to Sony's continued reliance on falling PS2 sales. As for the PS3, it's actually a dim bright spot: hardware cost reductions and increased game sales slightly stemmed the tide, but Sony's still expecting the division to lose money in the coming year. Sony also says it has "extensive measures" in store to try and turn things around after that, so we're hoping Sir Howard's plans to embrace open formats and listen to consumers are kicking into gear, but we'll see.Read - Sony financials [Warning: PDF]Read - Reuters reportRead - MarketWatch
Huawei ignores downturn, grows profit in 2008
"Loss" is a buzzword in the last couple quarters' worth of earnings reports from virtually every major manufacturer, but Huawei has somehow managed to operate in some bizarro La-La Land seemingly immune from the economic disaster unfolding around it. In 2008, the private Shenzhen-based firm posted an annual net profit of $1.15 billion, up some 20 percent from the year prior; it lost $776 million in the process due to the yuan's gains against the dollar, but that's still extraordinarily impressive. Interestingly, a majority of Huawei's business comes from outside China, suggesting that carriers around the world are looking outside traditional infrastructure suppliers like Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens to save a few bucks -- notably including Cox for its upcoming 700MHz buildout. 2009 might be a bit weaker thanks to soft demand in Europe, but still, they're predicting a whopping 29 percent growth in contract wins. Good to see some serious success in a down market, isn't it? [Via mocoNews]
Capcom reaffirms strong Western development focus
In its annual report to investors, Capcom makes it clear that there's money in them thar overseas markets, and it intends to seek it out. Stating that "overseas markets account for a staggering 80% of the current video game market," the publisher outlined an overall strategy that involves further partnerships with and "friendly acquisitions" of more external developers, particularly those based outside of Japan (sales in which, according to its figures, account for $4.3 billion in sales per year versus North America's $10 billion and Europe's $9.9 billion). One current example: Airtight Games, which is developing Dark Void (pictured above) for Capcom in the West.Capcom's head of R&D – and Mega Man creator – Keiji Inafune says, "There are many independent developers overseas with genius development capabilities," and that, "Collaborating with these developed will firmly establish our position as 'Capcom of the world' and further strengthen the title brand." Capcom sees sports titles as a particularly strong market segment worldwide, and, to that end, Inafune says that "collaborating with companies with an already established record for developing sport-related games" will be key.While Capcom is seeking to expand Westward via overseas developers, EA – which has partnered with No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda 51" Suda on a new action-horror title – recently made clear its intention to tap further into the Japanese development pool in order to bolster its worldwide sales and diversify its title lineup.[Via Shacknews]
ESA releases annual report publicly for first time
Some people have been wondering what the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) actually does. Well, for the first time ever, the ESA has released an annual report to the public showing off where all that publisher money goes. The report covers federal work, a state-by-state breakdown and goes into other initiatives, like anti-piracy and general research endeavors. There are no answers to why organizations like Activizzard and LucasArts left, but it does give a fairly comprehensive understanding of what the lobby group does to protect its clients.
Apple takes $84 million charge, defends Steve Jobs in options scandal
While Apple's surely enjoying the perks of having a monumental amount of iPods unwrapped just days ago, everything's not exactly kosher in Cupertino. Aside from the mysterious mouse the firm just patented, the company is facing another bevy of off-the-wall lawsuits, all while trying to fish its CEO out of potentially hot water. After the Securities and Exchange Commission found that ole Steve was granted 7.5 million stock options without the proper authorization of Apple's board of directors in 2001, there was widespread speculation that Mr. One More Thing may suffer the same fate as Apple's former CFO Fred Anderson, who resigned after a similar debacle in 2004. It seems, however, that things just might work out okay after all, as Apple finally filed its required forms with SEC, recognizing a "total additional non-cash, stock-based compensation expense of $84 million after tax, including $4 million and $7 million in fiscal years 2006 and 2005, respectively." Aside from taking the lofty charge, the company also stated that while Jobs was "aware of the favorable grant date recommendations, he did not financially benefit from these grants or appreciate the accounting implications." So all those out there holding your breath to see if Macworld would ever be the same if this went south, it looks like we'll be seeing jeans and a black shirt all over again in just a few weeks.
