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Low sales lead to dismal quarter at Sony Ericsson
MOBILE phone maker Sony Ericsson suffered a staggering pre-tax loss of €154m (£128.7m) in the final three months of 2011, down from a €39m income in the same quarter last year.
Around €93m of the loss was due to restructuring plans approved in December, but the quarter was also dragged down by a 16 per cent drop in sales to €1.3bn.
The merged Swedish-Japanese company only shipped 9m units during the period – 20 per cent less than the same quarter in 2010 – put down to an absence of new products, weak holiday sales and component shortages from the Thailand floods.
This decline was slightly offset by the increase in Xperia smartphone shipments – a total of 28m to date.