These are all troubling news. IMO there's no doubt the exchange rates have had the biggest immediate impact on Sony, but as has been mentioned, they are not the only problem they have. One additional problem they might have somes from the Japanese business culture and the tight relations they have with their subcontractors, meaning that it is not as "easy" to cut or terminate these contracts. If there's anybody with first hand knowledge of Japanese business culture, I'd love to hear more how these things are handled in times of economic downturns.
Anyway, Sony seems to have a strategy where the consumer electronics, SCE and movie and music studios all play along and strengthen each other, and they are in a unique position to do that, quite frankly. That causes some problems because they can't just cut off some parts of the whole equation without severe ripple effects to the other parts of the business. For example, getting rid of the movie parts would be a blow for the Blu-Ray, and for downloadable content to PS3 and some TV-sets. In the end, they might lose almost as much money in lost sales as they were to save by cutting costs.
IMO Sony has a rather good strategy in place, but the implementation has not been up to par. Perhaps this crisis will help them really focus on their strategy, and if they do so and are succesful, it's all for the benefit of the customers who can enjoy their Sony products that much more. On the other hand, with the 30% reduction in new investments and R&D, they might not have the necessary resources to pull it off.
