Sony warned it would post a bigger-than-expected $2.9 billion operating loss this business year due to sliding demand, a stronger yen and costs to restructure its ailing electronics operations.
The maker of Bravia LCD TVs and PlayStation game consoles said it would give further details of its restructuring plans at a briefing at 8.30am (Irish time) in Tokyo. Chief Executive Howard Stringer will attend.
Sony said earlier on Thursday that it was considering consolidating TV production in Japan into one plant, while keeping the other for distribution and other purposes, as part of a broader restructuring unveiled last month.
The electronics and entertainment conglomerate said it now expects an operating loss of 260 billion yen ($2.9 billion) for the year ending March 31st, down from an earlier projection for a profit of 200 billion yen.
A cut to its earnings outlook had been expected, but the scale of the revision was much bigger than the 100 billion yen loss previously reported by media.
The consolidation of TV production into one factory in Japan would likely lead to 2,000 job cuts, the Nikkei business daily reported earlier. That would be part the plan unveiled last month, which included cutting 8,000 regular employees, or 4 per cent of its global workforce.
But analysts say the electronic and entertainment conglomerate, which generates two-thirds of its revenue outside Japan, may need to take more drastic steps.
"Its business model and operational issues account for 80-90 per cent of Sony's poor earnings. Domestic production costs are a concern but this move is not something that would bring it back to the black or cut losses in half," said Nomura Securities senior analyst Eiichi Katayama.
"Sony has to consider ways to lower fixed costs not only for its TV business but for the whole company," he added. "It will have to start cutting development costs in addition to production costs."
Sony's shares closed down 2.6 per cent at 1,938 yen, underperforming a 1.9 per cent rise in the benchmark Nikkei average.
Illustrating the problems Sony faces, Japanese exports plunged 35 per cent in December from a year earlier, with electronics sales to China and other parts of Asia among the worst affected as Western orders from Asian assembly plants dry up.
Reuters