Sony's red ink worsened in the April-June quarter and it lowered its full-year earnings forecast as it battles a strong yen and declining sales of liquid crystal display TVs and video game machines, AP said.
The Japanese electronics and entertainment company Thursday reported a quarterly loss of 24.6 billion yen ($316 million) compared with a 15.5 billion yen loss a year earlier.
Sales edged up 1.4 percent to 1.52 trillion yen ($19.4 billion), helped by cameras, professional broadcasting products and mobile phones.
Tokyo-based Sony Corp. lowered its earnings forecast for the business year through March 2013 to a 20 billion yen ($256 million) profit, down from 30 billion yen projected in May, citing uncertainty in foreign exchange rates and global demand.
The company said it was hurt in the April-June quarter by a strong yen, which erodes overseas earnings, and by declining sales of liquid-crystal display TVs and video game machines.
It also got hit by a 20 billion yen additional income tax expense, had 11.3 billion yen in restructuring charges for the quarter, and invested heavily in image sensor production.
Sony posted a 456.6 billion yen ($5.8 billion) loss in its last business year. That was the fourth straight year of losses and the biggest loss in the 66-year history of the maker of the PlayStation game machines, "Spider-Man" movies and the Walkman portable.
Once the stellar brand symbolizing Japan's technological prowess, Sony has lost its shine. It is getting beaten in TVs by South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and by Apple Inc. in devices such as the iPhone and iPod.
