TOKYO (AP) — Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony Group Corp. reported a 3.4% drop in its annual profit but projected Friday a comeback to record profits for the current fiscal year.
Tokyo-based Sony’s net profit for the year through March totaled 1.03 trillion yen ($6.6 billion), down from 1.07 trillion yen in the previous fiscal year.
Ending a plan to release an electric vehicle with Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. hurt its earnings. Rising costs of computer chips also bit into profit and remain a concern, according to Sony, which has film, music and video-game operations.
Sony is forecasting a 1.16 trillion yen ($7.4 billion) profit for this fiscal year, which would be a record for the company and a 13% jump from the year that just ended.
Annual sales at Sony for the fiscal year that just ended rose 3.7% from the previous year to nearly 12.5 trillion yen ($8 billion), boosted by hit films such as the latest in the “ Demon Slayer” series and “Kokuho,” and by healthy demand for games and network services.
On a quarterly basis, profit at Sony, which is behind the Bravia and PlayStation brands and the “Spider-Man” movies, fell 63% to 83 billion yen ($529 million) from 224 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.
Quarterly sales edged up 8% to 3 trillion yen ($19 billion), said the company, whose musical artists include Bad Bunny and Sza.
Sony is counting on healthy sales from its upcoming films, such as “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “Jumanji: Open World,” to boost its bottom line for the current fiscal year.
Also Friday, Sony said it would spend up to 500 billion yen ($3.2 billion) to buy back up to 230 million shares.
Sony stock, which has been trading at about 3,000 yen ($19) lately, gained 1% on Friday.
Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama
FILE - A logo of Sony is seen at the headquarters of Sony Corp. on May 10, 2022, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
LONDON (AP) — Partial results Friday from local elections in England showed big losses for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s governing Labour Party and gains for the hard-right party Reform U.K.
The votes are being widely seen as an unofficial referendum on Starmer, whose popularity has plummeted since he was elected less than two years ago.
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, won hundreds of local council seats in working-class areas in England’s north such as Hartlepool that once were solid Labour turf. The picture will change throughout Friday as results come in from the majority of local councils, including Labour strongholds like London. Votes will also be counted in contests for semiautonomous parliaments in Scotland and Wales.
A Labour rout could trigger moves by restive party lawmakers to oust a leader who led them to power in July 2024. Even if Starmer survives for now, many analysts doubt he will lead the party into the next national election, which must be held by 2029.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy cautioned the party not to topple the prime minister, saying “you don’t change the pilot during the flight.”
The Green Party also hoped to increase its vote share and win hundreds of council seats in urban centers and university towns. The results reflect a fragmentation of British politics after decades of domination by Labour and the Conservatives.
The Conservative Party is also expected to lose ground, with the centrist Liberal Democrats making some gains.
Farage said the results marked “an historic change in British politics.”
Reform, running on an anti-establishment, anti-immigration message, also is eyeing breakthroughs in Scotland and Wales, though pro-independence nationalists the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru are more likely to form governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff.
Starmer’s popularity has plunged after repeated missteps and U-turns on policies such as welfare reform. His government has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living — tasks made harder by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, which has choked off oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
The prime minister has been further hurt by his disastrous decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished friend of Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.
Poor election results could trigger a challenge from a high-profile rival such as Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner or Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Alternately, Starmer could face pressure from the party to set a timetable for his departure after an orderly leadership contest.
“I don’t think Keir Starmer should survive these results," Labour lawmaker Jonathan Brash, who represents Hartlepool in Parliament, said. “We have to be bolder, and we have to go further. And quite frankly, we need new leadership in order to achieve that.”
Britain's Reform Party leader Nigel Farage poses for photographers with his poll card at a polling station in Walton on the Naze, England, Thursday, May 7, 2026 before he casts his vote in the local elections.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and wife Victoria arrive at a polling station in central London, Thursday, May 7, 2026 to cast their votes in the local elections.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
