Sony Aims for Big Jump in Devices Revenue, More Restructuring at TV, Phone Units

Japan's loss-making Sony Corp said it's targeting a near 70 percent jump in revenue for its electronic devices division over the next three years, even as it warned further restructuring is in store for its TV and smartphone units.

The ambitious plan to hoist revenue at the division housing its growing image sensor business, to between 1.3 trillion JPY and 1.5 trillion JPY ($11 billion to $12.7 billion) (roughly Rs. 68,185 crores to Rs. 78,722 crores), was unveiled at a Sony investors' conference on Tuesday. Sony sees revenue of 890 billion JPY at the unit this business year.

All of Sony's consumer electronics divisions combined account for roughly 70 percent of sales. But mainstream businesses like TVs and smartphones have struggled to keep up with nimbler rivals like Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Shares in Sony were up 5 percent, buoyed by positive analysts' notes ahead of the presentation.

Sony didn't give earnings targets for its smartphone business, the division which has weighed most heavily on results, but said it will issue guidance by the end of March 2015. The company said it would be cutting its smartphone product portfolio and revising sales and marketing strategy by region as it seeks to turn the division around.

On TVs, where Sony has struggled for years, the firm said it would aim to create a profitable business structure even if sales were to slide between 20 percent and 30 percent over the next three years. It said it may cut the size of its product portfolio by 30 percent.

It forecast game division sales of between 1.4 trillion JPY and 1.6 trillion JPY in three years time compared with a prediction of 1.29 trillion JPY for the current business year.

It also said plans to improve its operating profit margin for the games division to between 5 percent and 6 percent from around 2.7 percent.

Last month, Sony posted a smaller-than-expected second-quarter operating loss on robust sales of image sensors. The result was hailed by its finance chief as proof that restructuring is paying off, but a poor showing from its own Xperia phones weighed heavily on the results.

In a similar event last week for its entertainment units, the conglomerate said it was aiming to lift its movie and TV programming revenues by a third over the next three years.

© Thomson Reuters 2014