This year, it has reported a net profit of £33.6 billion yen (£182 million). That surpassed the 31.4 billion yen average of four estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sony said it still expects to ship a total 27 million smartphones over the full year and maintained its forecast for the division of revenues of JPY 1.19 trillion and an operating loss of JPY 60 billion. The company noted that the significant improvement was primarily due to the 176.0 billion yen impairment of goodwill recorded in the MC segment in the same quarter of the previous fiscal year. Camera sensors have also played a key role in the company’s recovery of the past year.
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At the mobile business, sales fell 15.2 percent to JPY 279.2 billion, while the operating loss narrowed to JPY 20.6 billion from JPY 170.6 billion a year ago.
While hinting at offloading its loss-making businesses, as the electronic giant had done with its Vaio computer brand past year, earlier this week Sony announced it would be acquiring Toshiba’s semiconductor fabrication facilities, equipment and related assets, including those involved in areas such as CMOS image sensor engineering and design.
Film unit operating income fell into the red to the tune of $187 million, compared to a small loss in July to September 2014.
Shortly after Sony’s announcement, rival Panasonic also said that its fiscal first-half profit jumped, as the firm presses on with a corporate shakeup. “We are facing a shortage of engineers in this field”.
As has become the norm, one of the most encouraging parts of Sony’s earnings report is the Devices section, which includes the company’s dominant image sensor business.
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Sony’s Xperia mobile phone business was still struggling. If all goes according to plan, the changes will help the company increase its operating income roughly 25-fold over the next three years.
