Years on years, Sony’s profit percentile has been dropped by 86%, 
and the year 2016 is also not seeming very affirmative for the leading tech giant and the reasons are many: the strong performance of the Japanese Yen, fallout from the Kumamoto earthquake and company’s restructuring. Altogether weighed on its second and third quarter’s earnings.
The Japanese electronics leading brand posted a small $48 million (4.8 billion JPY) profit in its Q2 2016 financial period, down from $205 million last year. But the scene is not that bad as its mobile business is again getting the right track and earning a good inflow of cash.
The Sony Mobile business had long impacted earnings, costing it over $500 million over its last financial year, but thanks to reducing the size and concentrating the products with impressive margins, the company’s performance has been shored up. As per records, Sony Mobile Communication carded a $37 million profit for the second quarter, which is a remarkable improvement on the $172 million loss for the last year and the operating profit of $4 million of the previous quarter.
In the last quarter, Sony has sold near about 3.5 million smartphones. But because the company cut down its mid range products and focused especially on the regions where it is strongest, the total sales jumped down by 40% year-on-year.
Sony’s PlayStation business, its most notable performer, saw sales decline by 11 percent year-on-year primarily due to currency changes. With 319.9 billion JPY ($3.2 billion) generated for the quarter, it was again Sony’s top performing business unit.
Elsewhere, the home entertainment business posted a $174 million profit, up 11 percent year-on-year, despite revenue declining 19 percent over the same period. Sony’s semiconductor business was impacted by Kumamoto, carding a $41 million loss as revenue dipped five percent annually. Its component business also reported a loss for Q2 2016 — $363 million — as increased competition in batteries took its toll.
There were positive results for Sony in the media space with its Pictures business — $32 million profit as revenue rose five percent — and Sony Music, profit up 15 percent to $164 million, 16.5 billion JPY.
