The only significant expenses not covered by operating profit is interest payments and taxes.
While taxes never entirely wipe out your operating profit, interest payments certainly can. Given how deep in the red Sony has been as a company in the last year and a bit it's likely they have some big interest payments to make. Those big interest payments come out of the operating profit before taxes come out, so it's conceivable that the Japanese taxman won't be receiving a single yen from Sony for the December quarter.
The excellent thing about an operating profit is that the company actually has some cash to be able to meet it's debt / interest obligations, rather than having to go deeper in debt (or delve further into cash reserves) as a consequence of an operating loss.
This is very good news for Sony, whether or not their net result is profit or loss. Obviously a net profit for the quarter would be the best news, but it's not necessary for this to be good news.
“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” - Bertrand Russell
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Jimi Hendrix
