A gloomy economy coupled with appreciating yen has taken a severe toll on Sony as the electronics major posted a 95 per cent plunge in profits for the December quarter.
The Japanese giant's bottomline for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008, stood at just 10.4 billion yen, a decline of 95 per cent as compared to the year-ago period.
Sony had a profit of 200.2 billion yen in the same period a year ago, a statement said.
Moreover, the company has reported a third quarter operating loss of 18 billion yen as against an operating profit of 236.2 billion yen in the year-ago period.
"An operating loss was recorded due to factors such as the appreciation of the yen, deterioration of results at equity affiliates, slowdown of the global economy and intensified price competition," Sony said.
The maker of Vaio laptops and gaming consoles PlayStations noted that decline in the Japanese stock market also added to the operating loss.
Meanwhile, Sony's sales and operating revenue fell nearly 25 per cent to 2,154 billion yen for the December quarter. In the same period a year ago, the figure stood at 2,859 billion yen.
The Japanese entity reiterated that it anticipates to post a whopping operating loss of 260 billion yen for the fiscal year 2009, reportedly for the first time in 14 years.
The company has already announced plans to trim its workforce by 16,000 employees to cope with the worsening economic conditions
Interestingly, in October last year, Sony projected an operating income of 200 billion yen for the fiscal year 2009.
