Sony reports $1 billion annual loss

TOKYO — Sony Corp. reported Thursday a 98.9 billion yen ($1 billion) loss for the fiscal year ended March, its first net loss in 14 years, and forecast its red ink to swell this year amid a serious downturn in global electronics demand.

Sony also said it is closing three plants in Japan to turn its business around.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company said no quick recovery was in sight, projecting a 120 billion yen ($1.2 billion) loss for the fiscal year through March 2010 on expectations that the strong yen will also continue to erode foreign earnings.

The results are a reversal from the 369.4 billion yen profit Sony recorded a year earlier. Sales for the fiscal year through March slid 12.9 percent to 7.73 trillion yen, it said.

Sony, which makes Bravia flat-panel TVs and Cyber-shot digital cameras, joins a string of other big Japanese corporate names, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., that are announcing huge losses.

Sony is closing three plants in Japan by the end of December this year— one for cell-phone cameras, another for video recorder parts and another for systems used for smart cards. After they are shuttered, the number of Sony's global plants will dwindle from 57 last year to 49.

By operations, Sony said it had an operating loss in its core electronics segment because of the slowing global economy, price competition and a strong yen, which erased any benefits from better liquid-crystal display TVs.

Sony also continued to lose money in its game segment, where its PlayStation 3 home console and PlayStation Portable have struggled against rival offerings from Nintendo Co., the Wii and DS, as well as in some markets against the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.