Sony Expected To Post $1.1 Billion FY Loss - Stock Plummets

[KevinBarrett]

100 billion yen? Is that all? I'd say they did pretty good for 2008!

[Dusty]

LOL...Canon expects to post net profits in the hundreds of billion yen, Nikon expects net profits of about a 50 billion yen, and Sony will be posting it's first annual operating loss in 14 years.

-Sonolta

True, However Sony is the 75th largest company in the world, Canon the 189th, with Sony's sales 2x that of Canon. (Forbes) That gives them a LOT of leeway to have a bad year, and a better chance of recovery. Also, since the Sony line-up of products is much more recession-proof, they stand a lot better chance of recovery.

I, for one, hope that the current economic state hurts them enough that they discount DSLRs and lenses heavily!

Dusty

[Dusty]

I bet you had not noticed the financial giants failing lately, eh? Nikon and Canon have lead this industry for many, many years and Sony lost money for the first time in 14 years...'Nuff said.

-Sonolta

No, I noticed. But aside from the credit crunch, what has that to do with manufacturing companies? The 2 companies you talked about have widely differing product lines, they just happen to overlap in a few areas.

Dusty

[AJ Gressette]

With the economic downturn, the global financial market and Sony making this report, now if not in the next few weeks, may be a nice time to buy stock in Sony. One bad year out of 15? How many companies would not love to boast such success?
No one knows how bad this economic situation will get, I simply think Sony, because of its diversity in the electronics market, will rebound and come out shining on the other side.
I have already and will continue to take these risk with Sony.
In the long run, if I play my cards right, profits to be made will far exceed those of reduced prices of a camera.
Simply the thoughts of an old man!
Only time will tell.
AJ

[stevecim]

It's not a loss till Sony says so.

Sony's shares are already on the way back up

Toyota had their first lost since 1958, but the word around town is that Big japan companies are better run than big US companies so they will handle the down turn better

[Dusty]

Stop trying to spin the first Sony loss in 14 years as you sounding a bit too much like a Sony fanboy deluxe. I guess you ain't heard the news that a couple of US car manufacturers are surviving on federal bailouts? I guess someone pops those cars right out of thin air...

-Sonolta

I'm not trying to "spin" anything, simply pointing out that Sony and Canon differ widely on products and markets. I'm no Sony fanboy. If it weren't for the fact that they bought out Minlota, I probably wouldn't have any Sony products in my house.

Auto manufacturing has little to do with cameras, unless you include Fuji, who owns Subaru. And the American auto companies only got the bailout because Congress is full of idiots. If Congress hadn't been such suckers as to bail out the banks, on the backs of our children, the car companies wouldn't have had the idea or gall to go to DC and beg for $$$.

Let's also point out that both Sony and Canon are Japanese companies, and that Japanese, Korean and German car companies that make cars in the US aren't in need of bailouts.

Dusty

[Dusty]

Canon and Nikon control the DSLR market and a Sony loss is not good for Sony R&D or anything else.

I don't care about walkmans and pink camera straps, I care about Sony having plenty of cash to move this DSLR division forward at consistently steady pace without reductions in future quality or developmental pace.

-Sonolta

On that we can agree!

Dusty

[KevinBarrett]

I don't have any figures in front of me, but I thought Sony's camera division did very well last year...was that an incorrect assumption? They've got their hands in a lot of other products that Canon and Nikon don't fool with. One in particular is a very expensive video game platform and perennial loss-leader, the PS3.

[KevinBarrett]

Sonolta, you're better than Wikipedia, Google, and DPReview combined!