Sony’s operating profits decline 29% in the second fiscal quarter

Sony announced Thursday, November 9, a 29% decline in operating profits in the second fiscal quarter, as the Japanese electronics giant suffered weakness in its chip business.

Revenues amounted to 2.8 trillion Japanese yen, equivalent to “18.5 billion dollars,” compared to an expected 2.87 trillion yen, which represents an increase of 8% over the previous year.

Operating profit was 263 billion yen versus 304.4 billion yen expected, indicating a decrease of 29% from the previous year.

Sony attributed the significant profit decline to weakness in its imaging sensing business, as well as declines in profit in its financial and entertainment services, and the company’s technology and services businesses.

The company said that chip division profits fell by more than 28% in the second fiscal quarter.

Sony supplies camera chips to consumer technology manufacturing giants like Apple, which uses the semiconductors in its iPhones.

Despite the decline in profits, the company raised its sales forecast for the full year, saying that it expects total sales of 12.4 trillion yen (higher than the previous forecast of 12.2 trillion yen) as it benefits from positive foreign exchange rates, as the Japanese yen weakened significantly against… dollar, and the company generates most of its income outside America.

Today’s results follow a fiscal first quarter that saw Sony report a 33% year-on-year increase in revenue to ¥3 trillion but a 31% year-on-year decline in profits to ¥253 billion.

At the time, the company pointed to weakness in its financial services and pictures division, which witnessed a slight decline against the backdrop of strikes carried out by the Writers Guild of America and other unions, in protest against the use of artificial intelligence to create movie scripts.