Sony’s third financial quarter (October – December 2011) didn’t turn out as the company had hoped, with a whopping net loss of $2.03 billion – twice as bad as forcasts. The company’s total revenue for the quarter clocks in at $23.37 billion, a 17.4% decrease when compared to last year.
It is unfortunate to see Sony struggling so much, especially around the holiday season, but massive financial losses is something the company has grown accustomed to. In fact, this is Sony’s fourth year in a row of being in the hole. It is important to note that Sony has had several adversities to overcome this past year, including the terrible flooding that set the company back and “unfavorable foreign exchange rates”.
On a positive note, the PlayStation 3 saw a 13% increase in software sales, with a total of 66.2 million units sold. The PS3 itself sold 6.5 million units, up 200,000 from the same period in 2011. While no data was given for the PlayStation Vita, sales for both the PS2 and PSP were down from last year – the PSP had sales of 2.4 million, a drop of 800,000 units, while the PS2 sold 900,000 units, a drop of 1.2 million units.
Fortunately it looks like some major changes are in store for Sony. There’s no doubt that Kaz Hirai, the newly appointed president and CEO of Sony Corp., has a lot of work ahead of him when he takes on his new responsibilities this April.
Hirai told a news conference:
I have a very strong sense of crisis about the environment surrounding us. We cannot be afraid to make painful choices for the future of Sony. Our rivals and the operating environment won’t wait for us.
The poor financial results mark Sony’s fourth straight year of losses.
