Sony Profits Plunge 98%

[Pert_UK]

"Japanese consumer electronics giant reported slumping sales and profits for the three months to end-June.

Sony said restructuring costs were behind the 98% plunge in net profits to 1.1bn yen ($9.3m; £5.8m) when compared with the same period of 2002. "

Full story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3092063.stm

[Zech Marquis]

1. what the hell?!!

a 98 percent drpp in net profits :wow: Sounds like Sony is in a whole lot of trouble!

[Nlighten1]

2. Very strange

maybe it is come creative accounting problems

[sujan]

4. I wish it was News Corp

[PROGRESSIVE1]

10. Same Here!

Newscorp should be "Enroned"!

:argh:

[MUAD_DIB]

6. I worked for a subsiduary of Sony

that was one of 10-15 "new media" companies that it had aquired over the past few years.

Soon after 9/11 (5-6 months) Sony had cut many of those companies loose.

They were a good source of capitol, but the American idea of "short-term" has certainly wokred itself into their long-term approach. They dropped us just as quick as American companies droped their regular employees.

[Robb]

3. Often restructuring

will change the bottom line without any "real" changes taking place.

BUT if a corp like Sony is doing this now, and taking the hit the profit drop will cause, they must think things are going to get much worse before they get better. It's gotta be pretty dang important to get this restructure done and done pronto.

Interesting.

[onehandle]

5. That's because they finally refunded my $200 after 7 months....

I bought something from Sonystyle.com last December. Didn't work out. Returned it. Was told that the charge would go back on my Amex in one or two statements. Ok...thinking that was a bit odd. Waited...In February I called and was told that it was refunded to Amex and it was their fault. So I called Amex. No refund recorded. Called Sony back, "Amex says you're wrong". Sony says, it's probably "going through their system." I say, "Look, this is an Amex Corporate Account, not Bubba's Visa franchise of x city Delaware bank. Amex knows their shit." Sony tells me to wait another statement period.

So by MAY (patient, aren't I), I call and start asking for supervisors. Supervisor tells me same story. I insist on a full review. She tells me that the FedEx tracking number I told her doesn't exist. She tells me this as I am holding the FedEx ship in my hand......Ok, so I call FedEx. I am told that after a few months, the numbers leave the system and you have to dig a little deeper at the FedEx site for archived numbers. I look. There it is. I call Sony Supervisor back. She is surprised I called. I walk her through the FedEx site and she sees it. "Let me make some calls". Calls me back after a week. Oh.....seems like the loading dock in LA, didn't fully communicate with finance. My return happened during a "system upgrade". Super says, "Let me make some more calls". I still have to call this woman several more times. Charge Finally goes back on my Amex last week....plus interest on the $200.

Moral: Never give up when you have a confirmed FedEx tracking number with signature confirmation. Sony is my second favorite brand after Apple, but No corporation gets away with shit with me.

Sorry, Just had to tell someone that story.

[Zech Marquis]

9. Damn...

man they certainly made you jump through some hoops, didn't they? Geez!

[Gman]

7. Bad news for PS2 players

and anyone else owning Sony products. The last Sony TV I bought, a 32" Trinitron, started having problems about 2 years after I bought it. After paying $300 to get it fixed, (it started doing the same thing again), I finally just stuck it out in the garage where it now sits. I bought a 35" Panasonic which I've had for a couple of years now and it works ust fine with every bit as good, if not better, picture.

All in all, I'm not surprised. There's too many alternative brands out there for TV's. However, the PS2 is popular, as well as proprietary so it remains to be seen what happens with it.

[Trek234]

8. PS2 will be fine

PS2 is nice hardware and has two competitors. One of which geared mostly for 5 year olds.

Remember Sony does *a lot* more than just make PS2 and TVs. They have fingers in just about every technology...

[dragonquest8]

11. in Japan, it is called as 'SONY TIMER'

some Japanese have wised up and stopped buying those craps.

[kysrsoze]

12. You're exactly right - always had quality problems

I absolutely love my PS2 - no problems whatsoever. But I know in the past Sony has always had a lot of quality problems. They were absolutely dismal in the 80's and early 90's, but things had started to pick up for awhile. Their typical consumer stuff is still crap though, especially CD players. The AIWA (subsidiary) micro stereos and Sony's portable products have terrible quality. I'd be afraid to buy a VAIO system. They have a gorgeous new widescreen HDTV monitor, but I'm afraid to buy that too.

I did boy a 32" Trinitron about 6 years ago which is still going strong (knock wood) and dropped a boatload of cash on an ES home theater receiver (only b/c it has a 5-year warranty - no cheap consumer components). I hope they start to focus on quality again.

[GAspnes]

14. Sony began as a quality operation

The chairman (then president) Akito Morita, wanted to get into the American TV market in the early 70's. American television manufacturers had nearby repair centers near their customers, but Sony couldn't afford to set up a U.S. repair network in addition to a U.S. dealer network. Morita mandated a 0% defect rate in design and manufacture, knowing that if Sony's Trinitron brand had *any* problems in the U.S., that would reinforce the "cheap imitation" reputation that Japanese products had had since World War II and permanently ruin sales for all Sony products.

Design and manufacturing developed many of the current quality practices now in use world-wide. Morita brought Edwards Demming to Japan, to teach Sony engineers and plant managers how to build in quality at every step of the process. The result was superb, replicatable, quality in every Sony product.

The strategy worked. Sony got a reputation as the company whose products always worked right out of the box, and never, ever, failed. Morita developed the WalkMan, demanding his engineers make him a portable hi-fidelity system so he could listen to music while exercising. He evaluated each version of the WalkMan personally, until he was satisfied. When he caught his wife glaring at him across the living room one evening while listening to his WalkMan, he told the engineers the next day to add a second headphone jack. (Shared listening never became popular, but for years, every WalkMan had two headphone jacks.)

In 1972, I bought my parents a 13" Sony Trinitron. It sat on the kitchen counter for the next 27 years, working perfectly until the channel selector dial finally bought it. Best $400 I ever spent.

P.S. - Sony bought Aiwa in the late 80's because Aiwa was out-Sony-ing Sony w/r/t features, cost and quality. The departure of Morita led to an overall decline in Sony products, imho.

[Atlant]

13. Curious. I wouldn't buy anything *EXCEPT* Sony!

In several decades of buying Sony products*, I think the
only real "hard failure" I've ever had was the DiscMan
that got fried when someone (not me!) plugged it into
the wrong power adapter. And now, after well over a
decade of hard use, our two identical AM/FM/CD heads
in the cars need adjustment of their CD players..

No, wait, that's not true. We bought a DVD player once
that was an "infant mortality" case; the dealer let us
"up-swap" it to a better player.

I will buy future Sony products without hesitation.


Atlant

*The list includes several A/V amplifiers, one 32" TV,
3 VCRs, at least 3 portable CD players and one component
CD Player, 3 AM/FM/CD car heads, 2 DVD players (plus the
infant-mortality one), a kid's AM/FM Walkman, a kid's
radio, a 1960-something pocket radio, an 8mm Camcorder,
a Vaio laptop computer, and doubtless other stuff.