Sony's fiscal 2012 results: $820 million loss due to floods, earthquakes and exchange rates
Sony's financial results for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2012 are in, with the Japanese giant reporting year-over-year losses in revenue and operating losses that it attributes to "the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange rates, the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the floods in Thailand, and deterioration in market conditions in developed countries."
Sony's fiscal 2012 ran from April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012, with the company reporting net revenue of ¥6.49 trillion ($79.1 billion), down 9.6 percent year-over-year from the ¥7.18 trillion (approx. $89 billion) reported at the end of fiscal 2010. After expenses, Sony reports an operating loss of ¥67.3 billion ($820 million), which is actually a smaller loss than that reported at the end of fiscal 2011 (¥199.8 billion/approx $2 billion).
Year-over-year sales decreases were primarily due to Sony's Consumer Products & Services (CPS) and Professional, Device & Solutions (PDS) divisions, with CPS sales down 18.5 percent at ¥3.13 trillion ($38.2 billion) in 2012 vs. ¥3.84 trillion (approx. $48 billion) in 2011, resulting in an operating loss of ¥229.8 billion ($2.8 billion) – more than a 2,000 percent decrease from 2011's operating income of ¥10.8 billion (approx. $135 million). CPS encompasses Sony's consumer electronics sectors, including LCD TVs, PCs, photography solutions and, of course, gaming.
Sony partially attributes CPS' decline in sales to "lower sales of PlayStation®3 hardware due to a strategic price reduction and lower sales of PlayStation®2 due to platform migration," among other reasons like deteriorating conditions in North American and European TV markets.
