Sony’s quarterly profit fell by 31% – Kommersant

Today, August 9, the Japanese corporation Sony reported for the first quarter (April-June) of its 2023 financial year (.pdf). The company’s net profit compared to the same quarter of the last financial year fell by 31%, to 253 billion yen ($1.8 billion). At the same time, the company’s revenue grew by 33%, to 2.9 trillion yen ($20.2 billion), exceeding forecasts of analysts surveyed by Refinitivexpecting 2.46 trillion yen.

Analysts attributed the decline in the company’s profits to the poor results of Sony Pictures, whose profits fell from $394 million to $115 million due to falling sales of series and streaming content. In addition, a negative effect on the company’s overall profit was made by the weak results of Sony’s insurance division.

At the same time, the company’s overall sales increased significantly due to strong demand for PlayStation 5 consoles (up 38%) and content for them. In the first quarter of fiscal 2023 alone, console sales totaled 3.3 million units, and for the full year, the company plans to sell a record 25 million PS5s, while a year earlier they sold 19 million.

Evgeniy Khvostik