Natural Disasters, Manmade Troubles Send Sony to a $199 Million Quarterly Loss

Hurt by earthquakes, tsunami and power outages in Japan – as well as by teen-age hackers – Sony Corp. suffered a $199 million loss in the most recent quarter.

The Japan-based company also reduced its projected profits for the current fiscal year which ends in March 2012 to $769 million from $1 billion, according to a report from The Associated Press. Sony also lowered its sales projections for the fiscal year to $92 billion from $96 billion, The AP said.

Hacker attacks on Sony’s network led to the company temporarily shutting down PlayStation Network and other services, The AP adds. The breach impacted over 100 million accounts.

Anonymous, a loosely organized hackers’ group, reported it targeted and took down Sony.com and the PlayStation Store website, according to TechZone 360.

Sony will charge $179 million to cover customer support, free offers, legal costs, lower sales and strengthened security, according to The AP. In addition, Sony has lost money for seven consecutive years in the TV sector. Sony has been hurt by lower demand for TVs from consumers in Europe and the United States, Reuters reported.

“The economic slowdown, especially in the U.S. and Europe, is leading to a significant drop in TV prices, worsening the industry’s over-supply situation,” Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citigroup, told Reuters (News - Alert). “Sony will need to promote more restructuring.”

“Matured markets such as Europe and the U.S. started to slow down,” Sony Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato was quoted by Reuters. “That’s clearly affecting our TV business. Shipments and sales are significantly lower and not reaching our target.”

On a positive front, Sony says it operations impacted by the massive March earthquake and tsunami “were recovering quicker than initially expected,” The AP reported. The Japanese disaster cost the company $8 million for repairs, cleaning, damages and related expenses.

In addition, Sony Pictures earned 9.3 percent more – helped in part by movies such as, “The Green Hornet,” “Battle: Los Angeles,” and “Just Go With It,” according to a report from Reuters.

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