Sony or realize five-year first profit CEO pressure increase

Sony CEO Hirai (Tencent Science and Technology map) Tencent Science and Technology (snow) Beijing time May 8 News, in the recent fiscal year, Sony may be able to return to profitability, which means that the company's chief executive Hirai (Kazuo Hirai) will be able to remove an obstacle, Closer to fulfilling his previous commitment to revive the electronics maker. But what Sony will do in the current fiscal year is more likely to determine whether the company will be able to move decisively on the road to recovery. Sony expects the company to achieve its first profit in five years in the last fiscal year up to March, but it needs to be pointed out that the return to profitability is more of an accounting triumph than an operational triumph for Sony. Sony gained financial revenues by selling office buildings and investments, while also taking advantage of the yen's softening and price rebound. Sony's core electronics business is still in trouble, and its television sector has been losing money for nearly 10 years. The market is looking forward to Sony's plans to release its earnings in Thursday. Sony's share price has risen by more than a year since it hit the 32 lows in mid-November, largely because investors are optimistic that the weakening of the yen will help boost the company's earnings performance. Moreover, the strong demand for Sony's flagship smartphone, Xperia Z, is one reason why Sony's share price has risen. Analysts on average expect the net profit of Sony to be 67.8 billion yen (about $684.8 million trillion) in the next fiscal year up to next March, up 70% per cent from Sony's expected net profit of 40 billion yen (about $405 million trillion) in the previous fiscal year, according to Thomson Reuters survey. Hirai, who took office early last year, has taken steps to cut costs and streamline operations in the previous fiscal year. Now Sony is facing key tests on production technology. Sony plans to release the latest video-game machine PlayStation 4 this year, while also launching a broader and more competitive smartphone offering to compete with companies such as Apple and Samsung. For Sony, the use of new products to achieve growth is particularly important because the company's electronics business is slipping. Sony predicted in February this year that the company's electronics sales would drop sharply in the last fiscal year, with LCD TV sales falling 31% per cent year-on-year and digital camera sales falling 29%,vaio pc and video camera sales fell 10% year-on-year. Sony said last week that Hirai and some 40 Sony executives had agreed to forgo bonuses because the company's electronics business continued to suffer losses. Bonuses account for 30% to 50% of the annual remuneration of these executives. "We think it is not easy to get the television sector back to profitability, to boost gaming sector profits and to raise Vaio profits," Yasuo Nakane, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities, said in a client report released last month. We believe that the growth of core business profits is the most important thing for Sony. ”For Hirai, the first year as Sony's chief executive was certainly a rather hectic one. During the year, Sony sold its chemicals business and restructured the handset sector. In addition, Sony has also withdrawn its LCD panel joint venture with Sharp and Samsung. By buying an LCD panel on the open market, Sony can get a better price, with the goal of ultimately curbing the loss of the television business. Sony has previously predicted that the current fiscal year in the TV business will achieve break-even, thus ending the loss since the beginning of 21st century. In this phase, Sony TV service has realized the transition from CRT TV to flat-panel TV. In addition, Sony's two other business units are also closely watched. Industry insiders believe that the launch of the PlayStation 4 May boost Sony's video gaming business, but this is not guaranteed; In general, new gaming machines often bring heavy losses when they are first listed. In the first few years of the launch of PlayStation 3, Sony suffered a billions of dollar loss because the company initially sold at a loss to attract users. In the end, Sony has made a profit by selling a high-margin game that lowers costs. Sony is using off-the-shelf finished parts to produce PlayStation 4 gaming consoles, which are not expected to be a huge loss in the initial market, as PlayStation 3 did. However, compared to the previous release of the new PlayStation game, Sony currently faces a very different market environment for video game consoles. Today's consumers spend more time playing online games and smartphone games, a shift that has contributed to the lack of good results in Nintendo's new game consoles over the past two years. The mobile sector is also a growing area of concern for Hirai. While Sony's latest mobile phone product is a good response in the market, it remains to be seen whether the company can break the "duopoly" between Samsung and Apple. At present, Samsung and Apple, the two companies in the smartphone profit market occupies a majority of the share.