Sony reports strong third quarter; Playstation posts 52% rise in profits, TV sales up

Carl B

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It's not Microsoft levels of cash, that's for sure - but it is a sharp turn away from their predicted loss for the year, towards seemingly decent profits. More positive though, it seems that their electronics division may finally be turning around, led by their LCD TVs.

Riding a wave of strength in flat panel television sales, Sony has managed to increase it's net profit for the quarter ended December 31st to ~$1.5 billion today from ~$1.25 billion in the year ago period. This contrasts sharply with the consensus analyst estimate of just under ~$1 billion in profit for the quarter, as well as the cautious words spoken by Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer earlier this year indicating a likely drop in profits in light of ongoing restructuring.

The strong quarterly result has prompted Sony to drop it's previous guidance of a roughly ~$90 million loss for the year, replaced instead with a new estimate of a ~$600 million net profit.

Leading the strong earnings has been the budding turn-around in Sony's TV operations. Sony has been gaining market share in the LCD TV market at a rapid pace over the last several months, in part on the strength of their newly launched Bravia line. Analysts claim a large contributing factor to Sony's current advantage in the LCD space lies in the advanced seventh-generation LCD joint venture set up with Samsung in 2004, which allows Sony to produce top quality panels while avoiding price and quality fluctuations associated with third-party sourcing. Readers with a strong memory will further note that it was Playstation division head Ken Kutaragi that entered Sony into the joint venture with Samsung when he served concurrently as president of the electronics division; a seemingly risky move at the time, but one that has payed off for Sony.

On the subject of Mr. Kutaragi, for the quarter the Playstation division posted a 52% increase in profits over the same period last year, bringing in ~$580 million on healthy sales of both Playstation 2 and Playstation Portable hardware and software.

Operating profit at the electronics division grew 56% to ~$680 million for the quarter.

Sony Third Quarter
 
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Yep. Since before Christmas we saw that the Bravia's sold like crazy, which is good considering their price compared to same level tech panels...

I'd love to see what the doom-and-gloom posters will say now. It seems lots of people were considering Sony "finished" for lack of money... Which in itself is rather amusing.
 
london-boy said:
Yep. Since before Christmas we saw that the Bravia's sold like crazy, which is good considering their price compared to same level tech panels...

Great ad campaign on the Bravia.
 
Good for Sony, I hope to see this company improve their electronics division and maintain healthy sales of PlayStation software and hardware. An amazing quarter for them. :D
 
I'm sure Stringer is pleased. Although like he said, they can't afford to become complacent because of fast results..

There were a couple of articles on the web in advance of this re. Sony's restructuring and the expected results today, which make for a decent read:

"How turned around is Sony?"
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/jan2006/nf20060125_2555_db039.htm

"Back in the Game"
http://www.smartmoney.com/barrons/index.cfm?story=20060123

edit - Also, here are some hardware and software shipment numbers for the quarter, from their financial report:

Hardware:
PS2: 5.36 million units
PSP: 6.22 million units

Software:
PS2: 93 million units
PSP: 14.5 million units
 
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london-boy said:
Yep. Since before Christmas we saw that the Bravia's sold like crazy, which is good considering their price compared to same level tech panels...

I'd love to see what the doom-and-gloom posters will say now. It seems lots of people were considering Sony "finished" for lack of money... Which in itself is rather amusing.

Bravia are not expensive considering its a Sony. The picture quality is fucking gorgeous and with a great ad campaign, it was on everyone Christmas wishlist.

Analysts claim a large contributing factor to Sony's current advantage in the LCD space lies in the advanced seventh-generation LCD joint venture set up with Samsung in 2004, which allows Sony to produce top quality panels while avoiding price and quality fluctuations associated with third-party sourcing. Readers with a strong memory will further note that it was Playstation division head Ken Kutaragi that entered Sony into the joint venture with Samsung when he served concurrently as president of the electronics division; a seemingly risky move at the time, but one that has payed off for Sony
Kutaragi-san hauling Sony back on track yet again. Awesome!
 
A $700M positive turnaround in forecasts...must've had one hell of a holiday season.

I wonder where the increased profit from the PlayStation division came from? PS2 performed worse (though it would have higher profit per unit I'd imagine), must mean that the PSP was (very) profitable?

Oh and like always, the PlayStation division accounts for a staggering proportion of Sony's profits, compared to the revenue.
 
War said:
They had a lot of balls to put that ad campaign out. :D

It's a really really good campaign :) Apparently it may be the first in a line of "like.no.other" Sony ads for various products, part of a global rebranding exercise. The Walkman has one now too.

Last time I went to the cinema, there were about 10 ads shown before the movie, and over half of them were Sony ads of one kind or another.
 
london-boy said:
Yep. Since before Christmas we saw that the Bravia's sold like crazy, which is good considering their price compared to same level tech panels...

I'd love to see what the doom-and-gloom posters will say now. It seems lots of people were considering Sony "finished" for lack of money... Which in itself is rather amusing.
Im back, and god am i happy to see this. Sony is too good tobe in second place. Now to get psp to sell like hotcakes!
 
I'd like to know what kind of financial analyst Sony employed that made an error in projections from a 90 million loss to a 600 million profit. Its a tough science, but I would imagine that you need to get at least roughly in the ballpark, not another stadium altogether. I can't imagine the repurcussions if the projections had gone the other way ie from a 600 million projected profit to a 90 million loss.
 
eDoshin said:
I'd like to know what kind of financial analyst Sony employed that made an error in projections from a 90 million loss to a 600 million profit. Its a tough science, but I would imagine that you need to get at least roughly in the ballpark, not another stadium altogether. I can't imagine the repurcussions if the projections had gone the other way ie from a 600 million projected profit to a 90 million loss.

I don't think it's a matter of the analysts at all (they all suck anyway), it's simply the fact that Sony's TV situation clearly went 'best case' throughout the rest of the year from the time Stringer warned of a potential loss. This puts Sony on surprisingly good footing in the electronics department going into the next year, and expectations are for large spikes in operating income over the course of the next two years.

Under-promise over-deliver is always the way to go anyway, so I think Strigner did right by taking control and setting expectations. I'm sure he more than anyone is thrilled at this result.
 
Perhaps the projection was based on a conservative, maybe even pessimistic, approach taking into account existing trends in the company. There was potential upside in certain new product lines, but that was still too much an unknown at the time to "depend" on its positive contribution. It's just fortunate the upside did arrive and seems to have had a pronounced contributive effect. That's my guess. ;)
 
So does this mean good for a $399 or lower PS3 price. I mean hell the way the PSP is supplying Sony with these profits (games, UMDs, and possibly hardware) hopefully Sony notices that a lower priced PS3 won't automatically mean losses for the year.
 
dukmahsik said:
id rather buy a bravia than aquos anyday... maybe except for that lovely 45in aquos :D

I haven't really looked into LCDs that much. Are the Bravias like their XBR line, which carries a 2-year in-home warranty compared to 90-days labor on their standard line?

I hear Sony is working on LED backlights, which yields better colors. Not to mention, LED should last a lot longer than other types of lamps as well as use much less power.

At CES, they showed a 46-inch 1080p LCD which people at AVS are trying to find out more about, like price and release date.
 
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