If you read that fortune article I posted, there is a bit more "between the lines" information dissected for the inquiring mind... For this most recent year (and some in this most recent quarter), they had a roughly $150 million "gift" from the reversal of a charge taken previously. That's a one-time event. They also got a one-time shot in the arm from a roughly $800 million windfall from selling off the semiconductor manufacturing line. There were some other sales as well but I don't have the time to dig them up. There was an insurance division, I believe, they sold off as well. I don't recall the number but it was big. Take those two things out and it's not really that impressive. Add to that their pessimistic view on the next fiscal year:
"For the year ahead, Sony predicted its net income would decline 22%, to 290.0 billion yen ($2.8 billion), because of the absence of the extraordinary gain recorded in the year recently concluded."
Clearly, Sony has some work to do and the weak dollar is going to continue to significantly hamper profits as the U.S. is a BIG customer....
All that said, the market certainly liked what they saw as the stock jumped up a good bit yesterday -- about $4 bucks a share which was a significant move. It's holding around yesterdays close so that's a good sign at least from investor sentiment.
I hate trolls.
Systems I currently own: 360, PS3, Wii, DS Lite (2)
Systems I've owned: PS2, PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn, 3DO, Genesis, Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES, GBA, GB, C64, Amiga, Atari 2600 and 5200, Sega Game Gear, Vectrex, Intellivision, Pong. Yes, Pong.
