TOKYO, Oct 25: Japan’s Sony Corp. said on Thursday it suffered a first half net loss of $360.8 million, battered by problems with its mobile phone business and the global technology slump.

The the electronics and entertainment giant’s net loss for the six months to September of 43.3 billion yen was less severe than the 73.78 billion yen posted last year in a result distorted by accounting changes.

Losses incurred by our mobile phone handset business) were slightly higher than 45 billion yen on a half year basis, said executive deputy president and chief financial officer Teruhisa Tokunaka

A disappointing performance by Sony’s electronics division also depressed earnings, he added.

Sony’s pre-tax loss for the first half came to 13.72 billion yen, contrasting sharply with a 113.73 billion yen profit previously, while sales inched up 5.2 per cent to 3,424.79 billion yen.

Decreased demand and severe price competition became more prevalent, reflecting further economic slowdowns in all major regions including the US, Europe, Japan and Asia, the firm said in a statement.

Moreover after the tragic terrorist attacks in the US in September, results on a constant currency basis during the quarter were weak, especially in the electronics business, it said.

Demand for Sony’s electronics goods worldwide slipped, with sales in the United States down 10 per cent from a year earlier and those in Europe down a little over 10 per cent, Tokunaka said.

Domestic sales inched 1.5 per cent lower and the outlook for the rest of the year was grim.

In the second half (to March) we expect sales will decline by a little bit higher than 10 per cent in North America, Tokunaka said.

But Sony still hopes to make a profit in the full year due to an expected revival of the games division, he added.

The firm has already slashed its profit forecast to March 2002 in the wake of the suicide attacks in the United States, and kept the revised figures unchanged.

Net profit in the year to March is expected to be 10 billion yen, on pre-tax profit of 70 billion yen, while sales are seen at 7.5 trillion yen.

Sony, which only recently branched out into the mobile telecommunications market, has suffered a spate of handset recalls due to glitches in its software.

It booked a 13.1 billion yen special charge for over two million faulty handsets recalled by Japan’s leading telecoms companies NTT DoCoMo.

The firm recently embarked on a joint handset venture with Swedish phone operator Ericsson.—AFP