Expected next investor conference call information:
Conference Call Date: 10/30/2009
Conference Call Time (ET): 9:30 AM
Conference Call URL: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-eventDetails&c=94202&eventID=2461307

Sony will cut costs deeper in its game business, which has also been bleeding red ink. Sony has already reduced the cost of its PlayStation 3 console, but plans to lower it another 15 per cent in fiscal 2010.

The company will focus more on growth fields, such as lithium ion batteries and services using the Internet. It will invest about 100 billion yen in lithium ion battery operations over the next several years, with an eye toward entering the automotive battery market.

Sony will launch an online service delivering movie, music and book content to such devices as TVs and portable music players, targeting 300 billion yen (US$3.4 billion) in annual sales by fiscal 2012.

And next year, the firm will introduce TVs and game consoles compatible with 3-D technology. Including equipment for broadcasting stations, the goal is to generate more than 1 trillion yen in sales for these products.

In June 2008, Sony unveiled plans to invest 1.8 trillion yen in strategic areas over a three-year period. But earnings deteriorated rapidly amid a global economic downturn. The firm conducted a management shake-up in April, with Chief Executive Howard Stringer taking over as president to right the struggling electronics division.

For fiscal 2009, Sony expects to report an operating loss of 60 billion yen, a slight improvement from its initial forecast and marking its second straight annual loss.

(Nikkei) bl

The closure will also affect some 100 consultants related to the R&D unit.

The move is part of Sony Ericsson's global cost-reduction programme, aimed at generating savings of EUR400m. The programme implies that a total 2,000 employees and consultants will leave the company by the summer of 2010.

Yesterday's news will not affect Sony Ericsson's R&D unit in Lund, southern Sweden, where 400 staff, mostly consultants, were given lay-off notices in May this year.

Sony Ericsson will also close a number of other R&D units, including those in Chennai, southern India, and in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, USA.

(EUR1 = USD1.5)

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