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Technology Stocks : Sony Corp - Sony -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: M CAHILL who wrote (78)	4/28/1999 8:44:00 AM
From: Neil H	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 497

Very dour report Wednesday April 28 4:56 AM ET Sony Reports Drop in Net Income By JOSEPH COLEMAN Associated Press Writer TOKYO (AP) - Buffeted by recession at home and abroad, Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE - news) said today that its net income plunged nearly 20 percent in the last fiscal year and forecast an even steeper drop this year. The Japanese electronics giant said consolidated net income for the year ending March 31 was $1.5 billion, down 19.4 percent from $1.9 billion the previous year. The company painted an even grimmer picture for the current year, forecasting that consolidated net income will plunge 39 percent to $922.8 million by March 31, 2000. For the year just ended, sales and operating revenue gained 0.6 percent, from $56.7 billion in the fiscal year ending in 1998 to $57 billion in the year just ended. In its statement, Sony blamed its slumping income on the sluggish economies of Asia, Russia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. The drop in income came mostly in the second half of the year, when the yen rapidly appreciated against the U.S. dollar, Sony said. A stronger yen makes Japanese exports more expensive overseas. ''Recent volatility of the yen exchange rate has made it more difficult to manage global procurement of materials, manufacturing and sales activities as planned,'' Sony said. The fourth quarter was particularly bad for Sony, with cuts in sales in the company's electronics, music and video game businesses. Profit margins suffered from slashed production. By segment, electronics sales slipped 0.5 percent; games sales were up 8.5 percent; music sales soared 9.4 percent; and sales in the motion pictures and television shows section plummeted 16 percent. The strengthening yen, however, increased production costs. For this year, Sony said economic problems will make recovery in sales in Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe unlikely. The game business is also expected to decline. The company also forecast a 4 percent drop in consolidated sales and operating revenue to $54.4 billion. The sour announcement follows a report from Sony Music Entertainment Inc. on Tuesday that it posted its first parent operating loss since 1969 in the fiscal year ended in March. The company, a subsidiary of Sony Corp. set up in 1968, blamed the $2.9 million loss on a decline in revenues, higher costs of sales and a large increase in promotion expenses.