As per reports, the company has already damaged its standing with investors by having failed to deliver on its earnings promises for seven of the last eight years. The scenario has been worsened by falling electronics products demand and highly competitive market where cash-rich rivals like Samsung are prepared to run Sony off the rails.

http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=823328

Matsushita's finances are make Sony's look straightforward. Which holding companies do you look at?

What i don't get is how do you predict your make at least $2Billion PROFIT and end up potentially being $2Billion DOWN in just 6 months? Is it just me that sees that 1st prediction as slightly dodgy?

It is hard not to feel bad for Sony but i think they are a fine example of the current electronics market. They make items in nearly every sector that are considered either to expensive or not as good as competitiors. I.e people in general prefer 360 to PS3, people preffer Ipod to Walkman, people prefer Toshiba's to Vaios, people prefer those Samsung Tv's and Phones to Sony's and Ericcsons. They remind me a lot like Woolworths, they have a huge word of mouth following who build it up as the greatest thing there is but majority of those people only say that because they have yet to vist a competitors shop. Once they do visit a competitors shop they realise just how much they have either been ripped off or that everywhere is actually pretty much the same. It is all about consumer confidence and now is the worst time to lose it.

 Arent profits (if there are any) handed out amongst the shareholders at the end of each fiscal year? i.e they don't save money?

I think I looked at a few of the latest quarterly reports that time.

What about this link? I believe it's for the whole corp.

http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=bi&q=NYSE:PC

Their revenue seems similar to Sony, PC's profit is higher, cash base is not very different but PC has less debt.

Those are called dividends. Sony doesn't have any dividends. Nintendo has a pretty good sized one for a tech company. MS has a small one.

In addition, Sony does not have a lot of money. In fact Sony is in debt and owes more money than it has. MS and Nintendo both have a surplus, which puts them head and shoulders above Sony in terms of financial stability.

Their total revenue for FY08 was $98.386 Billion. Does it start to make more sense now?

So the rumors about sony to close the gaming division is likely to be true???

so what? this is their first maybe second year where they lost money. Microsoft lost 6 billion on entire Xbox family but you didn't see that on vgchartz. I am not trying to defend Sony here i am just saying Sony its not screwed if it had two bad years. every company in the world has some bad period. When Game Cube was dying did anybody told Nintendo is dead? i think they did, and look at Nintendo now. They are definitivly winning this generation. Some people( (4 actually)on this we site are acting like they were waiting Sony to lose money for their entire life.OMG Sony is losing money!!!!!!!

Note: the last sentence describes only those 4 people

I agree a little with those who said all this is flaming against Sony. Just because it is not an economic website. Anyway is good to discuss this things to know about the future of the companies that offer digital entretainment, just don't make doom predictions without foundations. (I'm not attacking anyone just an advice)