TOKYO: Sony on Friday announced a whopping $1 billion six-month loss, underlining the Japanese electronics giant’s struggle to drag itself out of the red, while it falls further behind rivals Panasonic and Sharp.

As the trio published their half-year earnings, Sony said the challenges of a fiercely competitive smartphone business had weighed on its bottom line.

The company is also currently in the midst of a broader restructuring as it tries to move past years of massive losses.

Sony’s net loss for the six months to September came in at 109.1bn yen, way up from a loss of 16.5bn yen in the same period last year.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2014