With films like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and 22 Jump Street leading a recovery in its entertaiment division, Sony posted a surprise profit in revealing its first-quarter results this morning in Tokyo. For the whole of the company, net income rose to $260M or 26.8B yen versus 3.1B yen in the comparable 2013 quarter. Operating income hit 69.8B yen ($679M) up 96.7% from last year. As it struggles with a decrease in appetite for traditional consumer electronics, the company has ramped up its games business. Overall sales for the quarter were up 5.8% with the games segment making a large contribution via the PlayStation 4 which was launched in November 2013. The results today beat analyst expectations, but Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai maintained a previous full-year forecast for a net loss of 50B yen and an operating profit of 140B yen.
Sales and revenue in the games division jumped 95.7% to $2.5B and went from negative operating income to +$41.8M. In home entertainment which makes televisions and audio and video devices, sales increased 3.8% to $2.8B. The hike came from significant sales of LCD televisions, mainly in Europe and Asia Pacific — and were likely impacted by the World Cup. But there was also a decrease in the sale of Blu-ray disc players. The movie division, however posted a profit of about $76M, up 109.3% from last year. Sales and operating revenue were $1.9B. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has grossed about $706M worldwide, $504M of that from … Read More »