

Sony's Net Profit Drops 95% Q4 2008 - frisco
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123315847515224529.html

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mikeryan
PROFIT != REVENUE.

It's not uncommon for profits to see significant fluctuation.

Especially in this market.

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frisco
I mean, yeah sure, it's like this other reply below:

> Profit is down 95%, not net revenue. If they made $1,000,000,001 in revenue
> on $1,000,000,000 in expenses last year, and had identical expenses but made
> 95¢ less this year, then their profits would be down 95%.

The absolute numbers are still striking: profit last year was $2.2 billion,
dropping to $115 million. That's huge, not $1.

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mikeryan
It is but there can be so many factors that go into something like that.
Because of the economy many companies (And I can't say Sony has done this) are
writing down some huge acquisition and infrastructure costs this year while
expectations are low which can artificially affect this number.

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callmeed
Wait, 95%? ... as in, making $100 profit one quarter and then $5 a year later?

How is that possible? I can accept the economic slowdown being a
contributor–but not to the tune of 95%.

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gecko
_Profit_ is down 95%, not net revenue. If they made $1,000,000,001 in revenue
on $1,000,000,000 in expenses last year, and had identical expenses but made
95¢ less this year, then their profits would be down 95%. It's not uncommon,
and does not necessarily mean that the economy's crashed--though it does
always indicate corporate incompetence.

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gravitycop
Already posted (cnn link): <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=456303>

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lst
Yeah, please wake up everybody. (The generic and superficial american optimism
doesn't help here and now, and is actually part of the problem.)

We had the year 1929. Sure, quite none of us lived it, but we don't seem to
have learned the lesson, we did even worse with our new and sophisticated
economic systems...

