Sony net profit soars in April-June quarter

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony said Tuesday its net profit nearly quadrupled in the three months to June, backed by brisk sales of smartphone components and cameras and solid revenue from its game business. Tokyo-based Sony posted a quarterly net profit of 80.87 billion yen ($730 million), up from 21.17 billion yen in the same period last year. Sony struggled in recent years with huge losses, leading to a broad turnaround effort by chief executive Kazuo Hirai. The overhaul has seen the company cut jobs and sell divisions, including its Vaio laptop unit, to try to stop the bleeding. Sony even took a nearly $1-billion writedown at its movie unit last year. Quarterly sales in the semiconductor business, which includes sensors for use in smartphone cameras, soared more than 40 percent after production was hampered a year earlier by major earthquakes in southern Japan. Major firms including Sony and Toyota temporarily shuttered factories following the quakes, hitting production and sales. In April-June this year, camera sales also rose thanks to its production recovery and robust demand. Revenue also increased in the game and network services business, which includes the popular PlayStation console and software titles. But operating profit at the division shrank due to a lower price tag on a new PlayStation 4 model and a smaller contribution from software titles developed in-house.