Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sony Earnings Fall From Ugly Tree, Hit Every Branch on the Way Down
About the best thing to be said for Sony’s grotesque financial results is that they came in smaller than expected. The company’s 98.9 billion yen ($1 billion) loss for the fiscal year ended March–its first net loss in 14 years–wasn’t nearly as bad as the 150.0 billion yen ($1.57 billion) figure it had predicted in January or even close to the 173.8 billion yen ($1.8 billion) analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been forecasting.
Google posted its latest financials Thursday afternoon, and though second-quarter net income rose 35 percent, the company’s results fell short of estimates. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt described the company’s performance as “another strong quarter, despite a more challenging economic environment.” Sadly, investors didn’t quite see it that way. Shares in the company tanked in after-hours trading.
