Sony trims quarterly loss to USD 115 million

Tokyo, Feb 7 (AP) Sony Corp. Is still struggling but managed to reduce its red ink for the latest quarter as the Japanese electronics and entertainment company aims for a comeback from record yearly losses. Sony today reported a 10.7 billion yen (USD 115 million) loss for the October-December quarter compared with a 158 billion yen loss a year earlier. The company had a record loss of 457 billion yen for the fiscal year through March 2011 as its TV business struggled and it suffered from factory and supplier damage in northeastern Japan from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Quarterly sales inched up nearly 7 per cent to 1.95 trillion yen (USD 21 billion) despite declining sales of gadgets such as flat-panel TVs and Blu-ray video recorders, but only because Sony got a perk from a weaker yen. The yen has been weakening because of expectations the central bank will ease monetary policy and that helped Sony by boosting the value of its overseas sales. Sony has lost money for the past four years as it fell behind powerful rivals such as Apple Inc. And Samsung Electronics Co. In profitability and innovation. Kazuo Hirai, who took over as president nine months ago, is promising to lead a comeback with what he calls "wow" products, such as nifty mobile devices, sophisticated digital cameras and interconnected gadgetry designed to show off Sony's technological prowess. The problem is that rivals are doing the same and sometimes doing it faster and at cheaper prices. Sony is expected to disclose information about the PlayStation 4 video game machine later this month, but it's unclear whether video games can really save Sony. Sony's TV division is in its ninth straight year of red ink. Its movie business fared better on the success of "Skyfall" and "Hotel Transylvania," while its music business also did well with best-sellers in Alicia Keys' "Girl on Fire," One Direction's "Take Me Home", and Celine Dion's "Sans Attendre," according to Sony. Both divisions posted increases in operating profit and sales. Sony stuck to its forecast for eking out a return to profit at 20 billion yen (USD 214 million) for the fiscal year through March. It also left unchanged its projection for 6.6 trillion yen (USD 70.6 billion) in annual sales, up 1.6 per cent from the previous year.(AP) BOD 02071329 NNNN