Japan's Sony reports surge in profit on strong sales of movies, games and music

abcnews.go.com:

Sony has reported that its profit surged 34% in the last quarter from a year earlier on strong sales of its video games, music and movies

TOKYO — Profit at Sony surged 34% in the last quarter on strong sales of its video games, music and movies, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Tuesday.

Tokyo-based Sony Corp.’s quarterly profit totaled 189 billion yen ($1.2 billion), up from 141 billion yen the year before. Quarterly sales for the maker of the PlayStation game machines rose 14% to 3.48 trillion yen ($22 billion).

For the fiscal year through March, Sony recorded a 3% decline in profit at 970 billion yen ($6.2 billion) from more than 1 trillion yen in the previous fiscal year. Its annual sales climbed 19% to 13 trillion yen ($83 billion).

Sony’s operating profit was hurt by its financial services segment, which is being partially spun off next year. Sony's chief financial officer and president, Hiroki Totoki, said the company is reshaping its strategy to focus on its more profitable entertainment operations.

“We hope to improve our profitability and build our resilience to an ever-changing business environment,” he said in an online presentation.

Totoki declined to comment on media reports that Sony was interested in purchasing Paramount Global but he confirmed that the company's strategy “in general” was to build “synergies” that would leverage the intellectual property Sony has in games, music and movies.

In that report, first in the Wall Street Journal but also by The Associated Press, Sony Pictures and the private equity firm Apollo Global Management have expressed interest in buying Paramount Global for $26 billion.

Sony would be the majority shareholder and Apollo would have a minority