Sony profits drop 98%

[Asher]

Since this is about high-tech financials and whatnot, I'll post this other information here.

MS made $2B last quarter in profit. They also reported increased revenue in their Xbox division.

And they're hiring 5,000 more people, mostly for R&D, as they boost their R&D budget to $6.8B a year.

And, the Judge overseeing the MS case is satisfied with MS' compliance with the anti-trust deal.

Their cash hoarde totals $49B now, or 1/10th of all S&P 500 corporations combined. $700M of their profit last quarter was return on investments alone, and this is during a time of very poor investment returns.

If MS became a mutual funds company, it'd be the 10th largest, just ahead of Wells Fargo.

[mrmitchell]

Man, Microsoft needs to go collapse or something...

[Thue]

But its net profits slumped from ¥57.18 billion in its Q1 last year to ¥1.12 billion.

Many of Sony's divisions were hit by declines. Its Playstation and electronics group both saw falling shares, as Sony absorbed the effect of a staggering ¥140 billion restructuring charge.

If they had a one-time cost of 140, but their profits only went down by 56, they I would say they were doing pretty good! If I understand it correctly.

[chequita guevara]

So, how long should we wait for cheap PS2s?

[Az]

sometimes I wish Microsoft would collapse, just to spite Asher.

[yavoon]

I'll take this random moment to depress myself about how that judge blundered what would have been microsofts breakup and a return to capitalism.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Thue
If they had a one-time cost of 140, but their profits only went down by 56, they I would say they were doing pretty good! If I understand it correctly.

It's not a one-time cost, restructuring is to cost $300B yen over 3 years, they said.

From a news.com article:

The games division, a driver for earnings growth, saw operating profit fall 31.6 percent in the first quarter from the same period a year earlier. Shipments of PS2 consoles fell 42 percent to 2.65 million units.

[Colon™]

Asher, if you want a decent discussion about X-Box versus PS2, then show us some info about the former's financial performance.

[DanS]

Come on, Colon! Losing your hardon for Sony?

This thread should be titled "Sony Rejoins the Legions Of Unprofitabile Japanese Companies".

[Giancarlo]

I am sorry but I don't see how Sony can collapse. They just have too big of a potential. Any idiot would try to claim they would. I think they will bounce back in a few years...

[Colon™]

Still waiting for X-Box's earnings data...

[Colon™]

What Fez said.

[Imran Siddiqui]

He gave the profits for MS last quarter, Colon. He gave also the profits of Sony. Didn't really give the profits of the PS2 and X-Box. So MS beat Sony in profits, but we are not sure what parts of BOTH numbers are from the consoles.

[Colon™]

Yes.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Colon
Asher, if you want a decent discussion about X-Box versus PS2, then show us some info about the former's financial performance.

Okay.
Xbox revenue (quarter data):
2002: $448M
2003: $483M (note: this is with the lower console prices, too)

To quote from their quarterly report:

Home and Entertainment posted stronger than expected results in the fourth quarter, with 8% revenue growth over the prior year on higher than forecasted Xbox® console sales. Since the launch of Xbox in 2001, Microsoft has sold over 9.4 million Xbox consoles worldwide, and by the end of the next fiscal year, Microsoft expects to have sold 14.5 to 16.0 million consoles. In addition, Xbox Live™ continued to gain momentum with over 500,000 subscribers worldwide participating in more than 1 million game sessions every week. There will be over 400 Xbox titles available for the 2003 holiday season, and there are several highly anticipated games coming out this fiscal year, including Halo® 2.

...

Home and Entertainment revenue was $483 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003, increasing 8% from $448 million in the prior year’s fourth quarter. Xbox revenue increased $32 million or 13% from the prior year’s fourth quarter, primarily as a result of higher sales of Xbox games.

They also mention lowered costs of Xbox production reduced costs of production in general.