Japanese entertainment giant Sony on Tuesday reported a fall in first-quarter net profit due to one-off factors, with operating profit up thanks to strong demand for its image sensors. While announcing quarterly figures, the PlayStation manufacturer downgraded its full-year revenue forecast as analysts said the firm's recovery was levelling off. Sony's bottomline profit dropped 32.8 percent to 152.1 billion yen ($1.4 billion) for the April-June quarter on sales of 1.93 trillion yen, down 1.4 percent.
The plunge in net profit reflects in part the firm's exceptional first quarter results last year, fuelled in part by the sale of a share of its stake in Spotify. But its operating profit rose 18.4 percent to a record 230.9 billion yen. Sony spent years struggling to recover from deep financial trouble, a process that entailed aggressive restructuring, the loss of thousands of jobs and the sale of business units and assets.
Operating profit in that sector fell more than 11 percent. Sony has said it expects revenue from this core sector will sag due to a continued fall in game hardware sales, as well as the cost of developing a next-generation console and unfavourable foreign exchange rates.