Very shocking considering everyone was expecting a profit.  They also gave out a number for their PSN downtime which didn't help matter but is really just a drop in the bucket in terms of their losses.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-05-23-sony-psn-hack-to-cost-approximately-USD170m

Matt Martin Editor, GamesIndustry.biz
23/05/2011 @ 11:53

Sony: PSN hack to cost approximately $170m

Sony Corporation has warned that the PlayStation Network breach is to cost the company approximately ¥14 billion ($171.2m / £106.1m) by the end of the 2012 fiscal year.

The company was forced to close down its PSN online service last month after hackers compromised data of over 77 million user accounts. Later, Sony Online Entertainment's website was also hacked, bring the total number of breached gamer accounts to over 100 million.

"Based on information currently available to Sony, our current known costs associated with the unauthorised network access are estimated to be approximately 14 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012," the company told investors today.

Furthermore, Sony predicted a net loss for the entire 2011 financial year of ¥260 billion ($3.1 bn / £1.9bn) - compared to expectations in February that the company was on track to record a profit of ¥70 billion, blaming a write-off due to deferred tax assets.

For the full 2011 financial year Sony expects the Japanese earthquake and tsunami to wipe ¥17 billion from operating profits, and a further ¥150 billion from the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.

(More at the link)

Sooooo what does this mean in the long run?

Not all that shocking, really - their exps were outed prior to the Japanese quake and tsunami, and we all saw how much damage that one did. Sony just can't catch a break.

I saw this (daren't post it)

FYQ12012 won't be any better, but after that Sony should start healing again.

The $171 million PSN downtime loss is for the next fiscal year, so not included in the $3.1 billion loss.

It's also just an estimate, surely they can't predict with certainty what lawsuits will pop up or the results of those lawsuits.

A negative Sony thread?Made by Legend11?Well I'll be damned...

OT : This was expected,really,considering what happened in Japan.

not good news for SONY, they have to break its sony erriccson partner ship, everyone knows its an big red hole for sony. 

anyways, sony would never go down, Japan wont never allow one of its major corporations to go under. 

Actually SE are profitable for Sony. Last quarter they profited 19 million euros,and the quarter before that 39 million euros. Sure its a tiny profit but its not at a loss. Link

Your two paragraphs are somewhat contradictory. You're saying they should get rid of one of their divisions, that could well be how Sony "goes down", if they do go down. There's not much the Japanese government can do to stop them from gradually dropping unprofitable divisions.

Talking about big red holes, look at what this Associated Press article says:

"Sony has seen plunging sales of flat-panel TVs and other gadgets, and was likely to remain in the red in its TV business for the seventh year straight."

360 billion yen of that is deffered taxes.  That would be 4.4 billion dollars.