Sony Net Profit Plummets 94 Percent in Q3

Sony Cries

While Canon, Nikon and Olympus are reporting that they are awash with cash, Sony’s finances for the third quarter suffered a steep decline. Earnings dropped 94% for Sony in the 3 months that ended in September, due mainly to a hugely expensive battery recall and manufacturing problems in its Playstation 3 game console.

And while Canon, Nikon and Olympus are largely about cameras, Sony offers a diversified range of consumer electronic products. The recent debacle about its exploding laptop batteries exacted a heavy toll on Sony’s coffers.

The company reported a Q3 net profit of 1.7 billion yen (a paltry $14 million) compared to the 28.5 billion yen ($240 million) it earned in Q3 2005.

For this quarter alone, Sony had to pay out 51 billion yen ($420 million) mostly because of the battery problem.

This is the harshest blow yet to the Sony ship as it tries to navigate stormy seas under its first foreign captain, Sir Howard Stringer.

[Via: The New York Times]

Published by Chris Malinao

Chris teaches Lightroom as workflow software to photography students at the FPPF, Federation of Philippine Photographers Foundation. He also teaches smartphone photography.