After months of speculation in the media, chief executive of Sony Corporation, Howard Stringer, has finally confirmed that Sony is expecting its first operating loss in 14 years.
It is expected that the net loss for the fiscal year through March will be US $1.7 billion, a huge reversal from the US $4.5 billion profit in the previous year.
“I must note that a significant portion of our projected group-wide losses this year, versus the prior year, can be attributed to the unprecedented and unnatural strength of the yen, as well as the impact of the weak Japanese stock market and the value of securities held by Sony Financial,” commented Stringer at a press conference in Tokyo.
“Regardless of the various causes of our current financial profile, we must now embrace many difficult decisions in order to deal with this new reality immediately.”
Stringer has admitted that Sony was expecting a high profit for October, but sadly they were very disappointed to find quite a considerable loss. But Stringer has remained confident and claims he will rebuild the company to its former glory.
“I believe that it is my responsibility to change Sony and restore it to its former profitability, and I have to do that in a hurry, that’s our first and foremost responsibility.”
In addition to this news, Sony announced last month that they would cut 8,000 of its 185,000 jobs and close roughly 10 per cent of its factories.
Sony has also planned to reduce their electronics investments by about 33 per cent by the end of March 2010, a move expected to save the company US $1.1 billion.
A spokesperson from Sony Australia, told Current.com.au this morning that they have nothing further to add from a local perspective.