Sony Corp posted a bigger-than-expected 47 percent fall in quarterly profit and cut its outlook, hurt by its struggling mobile phone joint venture with Sweden's Ericsson, while rival Matsushita nearly doubled its profit on rising flat TV sales.
Sony lowered its group net profit forecast for the year to March by 17 percent, citing the slump at Sony Ericsson and weakening prospects for its electronics division as rivals try to undercut its Cyber-shot digital cameras and Vaio PCs on price.
"On digital cameras and camcorders, growth in developed markets such as Europe and the United States slowed and competition intensified, resulting in smaller profits," Sony Senior Vice President Naofumi Hara told a news conference.
The US economic slowdown, higher raw materials prices and a firmer yen have been slicing into the profitability of Japanese exporters. But analysts said Sony is being hit particularly hard.
Net profit at Sony came to 35 billion yen ($326 million) in April-June, down from 66.5 billion yen a year earlier and below the average estimate of 52.5 billion yen from three analysts polled by Reuters Estimates. Sales rose 0.1 percent to 1.98 trillion yen.
Bucking the trend, Matsushita reported a 86 percent rise in quarterly net profit to a record 73 billion yen. Sony cut its operating profit forecast for the year to March to 470 billion yen from 520 billion yen. The latest outlook is still above a consensus of 445.7 billion yen in a poll of 17 analysts by Reuters Estimates.
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