Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony today announced a third-quarter net profit of €870m, a result it said 'significantly exceeded expectations'.
The maker of PlayStation game consoles, Bravia televisions and Cyber-shot cameras is still emerging from the global economic slump but narrowed its full-year loss forecast to 70 billion yen from 95 billion yen.
Sony said it saw strong sales in the Christmas shopping season. For the three months from October to December, Sony reported a net profit of 79.2 billion yen ($870m) compared to a 10.4-billion yen profit the same time a year earlier. It had lost 26.3 billion yen in the second quarter.
Sales of PlayStation 3 rose following a price cut and introduction of successful game titles, Sony said.
Liquid crystal display televisions in Asia - a key product group in an important market - also boosted the operating profit during the quarter although lowered prices reduced overall sales value.
Sony reported an operating profit of 146 billion yen during the three months - compared with an operating loss of 17.96 billion yen a year earlier - on revenue of 2.24 trillion yen in the three months to December.
Sony is also continuing to pursue aggressive cost-cutting measures, including shedding 20,000 jobs. The company was on course to reducing cost by 330 billion yen and to close roughly 20% of its factories in the year to March, it said.
The robust performance in the third quarter led Sony to upgrade its annual earnings expectations to March. The company halved annual its operating loss estimate to 30 billion yen, compared with an earlier loss projection of 60 billion yen.
