Sony Ericsson Posts Narrower Loss Than To Be Expected

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd., the mobile-phone venture of Sony Corp. and Ericsson AB, reported its fourth straight quarterly loss on lower demand for its handsets.

Photo: Sony Ericsson Posts Narrower Loss Than To Be Expected

The second-quarter net loss was 213 million euros ($300 million), smaller than analysts anticipated, compared with net income of 6 million euros a year earlier, the company said in a statement today. Sales fell 40 percent to 1.68 billion euros, missing analysts’ estimates.

Sony Ericsson announced three cost-reduction programs and carried out 2,350 of 4,000 announced job cuts in the past year as it adjusted to falling prices and sales. Cash flow has been negative since the beginning of 2008, and Ericsson has said it will support the venture with more capital if necessary, Bloomberg reports.

Meanwhile, mobile handset maker Sony Ericsson Thursday posted a narrower than expected net loss for the second quarter but sales remained well down compared with last year, hit by weak consumer spending and the company's failure to bring high-end smartphones to market quickly enough.

Sony Ericsson posted a €213 million ($300.5 million) net loss for the three months to June 30, down from a €6 million profit the previous year, but better than analysts' expectations for a €298 million loss, Wall Street Journal reports.

Sony Ericsson, owned by Swedish Ericsson and Japan's Sony Corp., reported a quarterly pretax loss of 283 million euros. The firm booked 1 million euros in restructuring charges in the quarter.

The mean forecast in a Reuters poll of 16 analysts had been for a 284 million euro loss excluding restructuring charges of on average 62 million, Reuters reports.