Sony's profit doubles on sales of flat TVs and video cameras

Sony said Thursday its April-June net profit more than doubled to 66.46 billion yen (US$551.5 million; EUR 401.3 million) from the previous year on solid sales of flat-panel TVs, digital cameras and video camcorders.

Photo: Sony's profit doubles on sales of flat TVs and video cameras

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company's quarterly sales jumped 13.3 percent to 1.977 trillion yen (US$16.41 billion; EUR 11.94 billion) from 1.744 trillion yen the previous year. Net profit a year ago was 32.29 billion yen.

Sony Corp., which makes the PlayStation 3 video game console and the Walkman portable audio player, said its game operations were still in the red because of a strategic decision to price the PlayStation 3 below production costs.

The video game console has been struggling against the Wii from rival Nintendo Co., which reported Wednesday that quarterly earnings soared fivefold.

Tokyo-based Sony, which also has sprawling entertainment businesses, also got a perk in its movies division from the successful worldwide theater reception for "Spider-Man 3."

A weak yen, which tends to lift the value of overseas earnings for Japanese exporters, also helped, Sony said in a statement.