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AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

Games and box-office movies help Sony post surprise profit

Despite posting a net profit of €194 million this quarter, Sony still expects to make a full-year loss.

SONY SAID ON Thursday it saw a €194 million first-quarter net profit thanks to brisk sales of its PlayStation 4 console and a weak yen, but said it still expects a full-year loss.

The company’s net profit came to 26.8 billion yen (€194 million) for the three months through June, up from 3.1 billion yen a year earlier, with sales rising 5.8 percent to 1.8 trillion yen.

The gains were largely driven by “a significant increase in game and network services segment sales, reflecting the contribution of the PlayStation 4… as well as the favourable impact of foreign exchange rates”, Sony said in a statement.

A weak yen boosts the profitability of Japanese exporters such as Sony.

The consumer electronics giant also said box-office hits, including “The Amazing Spider-Man 2″, boosted results at its movie unit, which includes a Hollywood studio.

Sony, which has been undergoing a painful restructuring after years of losses, still expects a net loss of 50 billion yen on sales of 7.8 trillion yen for the fiscal year through March 2015.

The firm said it more than doubled operating profit in its television segment thanks to strong sales of flat-screen televisions in Asia and Europe.

The news comes despite Japanese manufacturers suffering badly in their TV divisions as razor-thin margins and fierce overseas competition hammers their finances.

Sony said its smartphone business saw an operating loss of 2.7 billion yen due to growing marketing costs as the business struggled in Japan, where Apple’s iPhone dominates.

Despite the upbeat results, analysts warned that the positive impact of a weak yen was fading, and said Sony along with rivals Panasonic and Sharp must speed up their corporate overhauls.

“Japanese electronics makers can’t expect much from the impact of a weak yen for the current fiscal year,” said Yasuo Imanaka, analyst at Rakuten Securities.

“Sony is now heavily relying on its entertainment, music and insurance businesses.

“They have to speed up the pace of their restructuring, which is crucial for its survival. Otherwise, investors will lose their patience.”

Panasonic is due to announce its latest earnings later Thursday.

© AFP, 2014

Read: Mario Kart 8 wasn’t enough to save Nintendo from a €72 million loss >

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    Mute RJ.Fallon
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    May 20th 2018, 12:12 PM

    “privatisation Drive” , another ” lets grab all they have” scam. Like ourselves, soon to be left with nothing to call our own.

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    Mute Aidan Mitchell
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    May 20th 2018, 12:16 PM

    @RJ.Fallon: beating up a 75 year old man should sort that right out…

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    Mute BananaRepublic1922
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    May 20th 2018, 12:20 PM

    @RJ.Fallon: we have nothing to call our own its all been given away by our treasous politicians….this republic has been sold right under our feet and stupid paddy doesnt give a f@@k.

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    May 20th 2018, 12:47 PM

    @BananaRepublic1922:
    Good.
    I rather see them sold than the Irish taxpayer being on the hook for them
    I worked in the semi state sector for years, my god the people in them would get some fright if there jobs were actually at risk.

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    Mute Sean Conway
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    May 20th 2018, 12:48 PM

    @RJ.Fallon: Millionaire FF/FG politicians are just waiting for an excuse to sell IW from under our noses.

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    Mute Robert O'Rourke
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    May 20th 2018, 12:31 PM

    It isn’t the Greeks it’s the Chinese he’s after.

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    Mute Boyne Sharky
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    May 20th 2018, 5:26 PM

    We can all sympathise with how they may feel, seeing their country being sold out from under them, but beating the ever loving sh.. it out of a 75 year old man isn’t the way to solve anything. That’s the sort of thing that makes their cause worthless, it makes them worse than those they’re angry about. A big muscled lad picking on the weakest in society, yeah that sends a great message.

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    Mute John Fergus
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    May 20th 2018, 7:13 PM

    With a meeting of eurozone finance ministers set for 21 June, teams of experts from the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have met with the Greek government in recent days to discuss its privatisation drive, an overhaul of the civil service and the deregulation of the state-dominated energy market.
    In a statement that gave no detail on the agreement, the EU’s executive said a staff-level accord had been reached.

    This is the main piece of the article that deserves attention. The people they carried out the attack were labelled as being far right wing by the office of the countries left-wing leader. A cynical person would question this.
    Perhaps the attackers were people that voted for Tsipras and Syriza in 2015 and now are utterly dismayed at how their country is and sold out from under their feet.
    In any event I don’t know I wasn’t there.
    The sad thing is there is no end in sight, Greece cannot effectively survive in the euro it is the totally wrong currency for them.

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    Mute John Fergus
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    May 20th 2018, 8:46 PM

    @John Fergus: don’t get me wrong it’s tragic what happened. Those responsible for beating a 75-year-old man should be figuratively hung. That being said the official line on this is likely skewed to benefit those giving it.

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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    May 21st 2018, 1:14 AM

    @John Fergus: Currency? If your economy was a basket case to begin with, does it matter much about the currency? Interestingly, most Greeks want to stay in the Euro, apparently – go figure?

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    May 20th 2018, 6:07 PM

    Disgusting hitting a 75 year old man.
    Unforgivable.

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    Mute Jasun Ó Cearnaigh
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    May 20th 2018, 11:33 PM

    Would it have been OK If he was 30 and not 75?

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