Sony Posts Eighth Straight Quarterly Loss

From DailyTech: Things aren't going well for Sony, as the company is struggling in multiple market segments to compete. The company has seen its profits slump and recently posted its eighth consecutive quarterly loss. Sony was also forced to cut sales targets for its TVs, gaming devices, and digital cameras as demand continues to weaken.

Sony has resorted to selling some of the property it owns in order to improve cash flow. In January, Sony sold its New York headquarters for $1.1 billion.

However, the sale of that headquarters didn't stop Sony from posting a loss of $1.73 billion for the quarter that ended in December. Sony blamed some of the loss on slumping TV sales that have plagued some of its competitors including Sharp and Panasonic.

“Having assets to sell is saving Sony,” said Mitsuo Shimizu, a Tokyo-based analyst at Iwai Cosmo Holdings Inc. “It isn’t really clear yet what can start driving growth.”

While Sony posted a loss for the quarter, the company still forecasts full-year net income of $213 million. Sony is also cutting 10,000 jobs, which should help push it towards probability.

“Sony is supposed to sell strong products that aren’t reliant on currency swings,” said Yuuki Sakurai, president of Fukoku Capital Management Inc. “We need to see those products before we’ll invest in Sony again.”

Sony also reduced its forecast for sales of portable game devices for its year ending March to 7 million units from the 10 million units it predicted just three months ago. In addition, Sony is reportedly looking at selling more land, buildings, businesses, and security holdings.

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