Sony is forced to adjust its estimates of expected losses for 2014, quantified at the beginning of the year at 50 billion yen, up to 230 billion yen, equal to 2,14 billion dollars and 1,7 billion euros.
Since 1958 - the year of Sony's flotation - it is the first time that the company has not distributed dividends. The causes of the collapse are mainly attributable to the suffering of mobile telephony. From this sector, announced the CEO Kazuo Hirai, 15% of jobs will be cut.
The internal reorganization plan, which had envisaged the spin-off of the television division and the sale of the computer unit, seems to have served no purpose. The results of that operation were expected in this very period, and even if in July there was a timid return to profit for Sony, the serious rise in the estimates of losses brings the Japanese giant back into a critical situation.
For its part, Sony's management commented on the bad news by saying that the cause of such a collapse is "the unfavorable competitive climate in the mobile sector which needs a review of the strategy aimed at reducing risks and volatility". The recent restructuring strategy has therefore focused on the areas of greatest appeal – as well as profit – such as gaming, imaging technologies and smartphones.
