Sony Corp has said it expects to post a $3.2 billion (€2.3 billion) net loss for the year ending 31 March due to a write-off on tax credits, the latest in a string of grim headlines for the consumer electronics giant.
The maker of PlayStation video games, Vaio computers and Bravia TVs has been battling to recover from the devastating Japan earthquake in March, and more recently, a series of computing hacking attacks that affected more than 100m user accounts.
Sony, once a symbol of Japan's electronic and manufacturing excellence, has found itself outmanoeuvred by Apple in portable music and Samsung Electronics in flat-screen TVs and is facing a tough fight in video games with Nintendo and Microsoft.
Sony said it now expected a net loss of 260 billion yen ($3.2 billion) versus a previous forecast for a profit of 70 billion yen due to a 'non-cash charge' of around 360 billion yen related to Japanese tax credits.
It is due to announce its full-year earnings on Thursday.
The net loss would be Sony's biggest since 1995 and its second-largest ever.
The company stuck with its earlier forecast, issued before the 11 March earthquake, for an annual operating profit of 200 billion yen, which is broadly in line with consensus forecasts.
Sony said it expected sales to rise this year and forecast a net profit.
Some investors saw the revisions as a way for Sony to put the slew of bad news behind it and start with something of a clean slate.
In its first estimate for the year to March 2012, Sony said its operating profit would also be around 200 billion yen.
The devastating earthquake and tsunami in March damaged Sony plants in north-eastern Japan, snarled the global supply chain in several industries and triggered a plunge in domestic consumption.
Sony estimated the impact of the quake in the current year at 150 billion yen at the operating level.
Many rival corporations, including Panasonic Corp, have yet to issue forecasts for the current financial year to March 2012, due to uncertainty following the disaster.
Sony last month disclosed that it had been a victim of one of the biggest cyber-attacks in history.
It shut down its PlayStation Network across the globe in mid-April and has slowly started to restore access.
The company is still working with Japanese government authorities to restore access in that country.
Sony said 'known costs' were estimated at 14 billion yen.
Sony is targeting the end of May for fully restoring the affected networks.
Shares in Sony ended down 0.5% in a Tokyo market down 1.5%.
It shares though have fallen 24% so far this year, compared with a 7% fall in the Nikkei average.
