Sony recorded a 61.6% jump in its net profit in the third quarter of this year thanks to the success of its entertainment and movie sectors, the firm said yesterday.
The electronics and entertainment group reported a net profit of 53.2bn yen (£270m) for the quarter ended September 30, up ¥32.9bn on the same period last year.
The huge rise in net profits came on the back of a string of successes in Sony's entertainment divisions. Its music business returned to profitability after a loss in the same period last year and its film arm saw revenues lifted by box-office hits such as Spider-Man 2.
The firm has high hopes for an agreement between Sony Music Entertainment and the music unit of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann to develop a new catalogue.
Sony and four partners are to buy Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, whose library of 4,100 films includes West Side Story, Rocky and the James Bond series. Revenue fell in the electronics and video game sectors, with sales down 5.3% to ¥1.7 trillion. Sony's mobile phone joint venture with Ericsson brought in revenue of just over ¥6bn.
Though it raised its profit outlook over the entire year to ¥110bn, up 4% from 2003, Sony forecast a 2% drop in sales from last year to ¥7.35 trillion.
Profits would have been higher had it not been for a strong yen. The dollar stayed at the 110 yen level during the third quarter, depleting Sony's overseas profits after they had been converted into yen.
Despite the encouraging figures, Sony warned of a difficult year ahead, particularly in its electronics division, which saw profits slide more than 83% to ¥7.2bn.
Sales of flat-panel and liquid-display televisions, and digital cameras remained firm, but those of conventional cathode-ray tube TVs and portable music players dropped amid challenges from competitors, including Matsushita.
There was better news yesterday for Matsushita, which reported profits for the first half of this year had nearly doubled. Matsushita, the company behind the Panasonic range of consumer electric appliances, cited demand for DVD recorders and flat-panel TV screens in the run-up to the Olympics. Demand for air conditioners soared when Japan experienced one of its hottest summers for years.
