Sony prepares to post first annual operating loss in 14 years… $3 billion

When it rains it pours and over at Sony we’re looking at a torrential downpour the likes of which the company has never seen. Not long ago, analysts predicted Sony would post a massive operating loss of $1 billion on the year. Good call, analysts, only you were about 260 percent off. Sony let the cat out of the bag today and revealed it will post a staggering $2.9 billion operating loss, far and away the worst loss the company has ever seen. Sony’s last losing year, its only other annual loss in fact, was back in 1995 when its movie studio took a beating. Now, 14 years later, a terrible sales year coupled with the economic downturn amount to the worst annual performance the company has reported in its history as a publicly traded company. Sony plans to eliminate a horrifying 16,000 jobs between now and March of next year as part of an effort to shed over $2.8 billion in operating costs during that time frame. In the end, Sony is about to undergo changes the likes of which the company has never seen as it tries to recover from this past year – layoffs, facility closures, salary / benefit cuts and restructuring are now the name of the game.

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