Sony Forecasts Nearly $1 Billion Profit for Current Year

Sony Corp forecast a net profit of $975 million U.S. dollars on Thursday for the year that started on April 1.

The electronics and entertainment company says it expects to make an operating profit of about $2.4 billion U.S. dollars this business year.

[Masaru Kato, CEO, Sony Corp.]:
„Despite the negative effects from the earthquake in Northeastern Japan, this year we expect four-percent increase in sales and about the same level of net profit.“

On Monday, Sony revised its estimate of net profit for the year ending on March 31, saying the impact of Japan’s earthquake had clouded sales prospects in the country.

Sony is recovering from one of the biggest ever Internet security breaches, which forced it to close its PlayStation videogames network for nearly a month after data on tens of millions of user accounts was leaked.

Hacking attacks exposed more than 100 million accounts on its online gaming network to possible data theft. On Tuesday Sony said additional websites in four countries have also been hacked.

Among the break-ins, personal information for 8,500 people was leaked from its Greek Sony Music Entertainment website.

Even so, the company also predicted that it will sell 15 million of its flagship PlayStation 3 game consoles in the current business year, compared with 14.3 million in the year that just ended.

[Masaru Kato, CEO, Sony Corp.]:
„There are concerns about a sales drop of PlayStation 3 and other devices that connect to our networks, but we’re not actually worrying.“

Sony reiterated its plan to release a next generation portable games device by the end of 2011.

Foto: NTD