Sony cuts financial projections, and maybe jobs

JAPANESE HARDWARE FIRM Sony is warning investors to expect a $6.4bn net loss for its last business year.

This is around twice the loss it had previously predicted, and makes its fourth year of losses.

It is also not the only bad news at the firm, as reports suggest that it is close to announcing around 10,000 staff layoffs across its divisions. The job losses are likely to affect its mid-range display business as well as its chemicals unit.

It's a bad start for new CEO Kazuo Hirai, who has ascended Sony's ranks from his position in the firm's games business. Hirai just took on his new role in early February, at about the same time as the firm last warned investors about its financials. Then it was looking at a loss of just under $3bn.

In its latest warning it blamed external forces like taxes for its increasing losses. It expects to release its consolidated financial results at the end of May, by which time the story might have changed again.

In a webcast Sony CFO Masaru Kato took care to explain how writing off deferred tax credits will cause short term pain but long term gain. µ