Hur kommer recessionen påverka konsolförsäljningen?

EA Reducing Work Force By 1,000, Closing 9 Locations

The workforce reduction portion of the program is actually an extension on the 6% reduction announced back in October, increasing it to a 10% reduction. Terminations of the 1,000 employees is expected to be completed by March 31st, 2009. On top of the terminations, nine studio and publishing locations will be either closed or consolidated with other facilities, with Black Box Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia being merged with the EA studio in Burnaby, BC.

Along with narrowing their games portfolio, these measures are expected to save the company $120 million annually, while costing them $55-65 million in restructuring charges over the next few quarters.

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The restructuring also calls for consolidation or closure of at least nine studio and publishing locations. Among the facilities to be consolidated is the Black Box Studio facility in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Black Box development teams and associated game franchises will move to the nearby EA studio location in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Wii games on the motion-sensing Nintendo console notched up £481 million worth of sales at the tills, up by 112 per cent, overtaking Microsoft's Xbox 360. Sales of 360 games totalled £443 million, up 38 per cent, while games for Sony's PlayStation 3 reached £334 million.

DVD sales grew 1.9 percent to 252.9 million units while high-definition Blu-ray formats, which offer a sharper picture quality, jumped 358 percent to 3.7 million.

NEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Sony Corp (6758.T) is expected to post an operating loss of about 100 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for 2008/09, the Nikkei business daily reported, far short of the company forecast for a profit of 200 billion yen.

The operating loss -- Sony's first in 14 years -- could be double that, depending on inventory conditions in the January-March quarter, the Nikkei said it had learned.

In October, Sony forecast a full-year operating profit of 200 billion yen for the year to March 31, down from 475.2 billion yen in 2007/08.

The following are factors that contributed to changes in operating income (loss) forecast for each business segment for the second half of the fiscal year, compared to the October forecast.

1. In the Electronics segment, operating income (loss) is expected to be approximately ¥340 billion lower than our earlier forecast. Of this, approximately ¥250 billion is due to a deterioration in the business environment brought on by the slowing global economy and an intensification of price competition, approximately ¥40 billion is due to the impact of the appreciation of the yen, approximately ¥30 billion is due to additional restructuring charges and approximately ¥20 billion is due to a deterioration in equity in net income (loss) of affiliated companies.
   
2. In the Game segment, operating income (loss) is expected to be lower by approximately ¥30 billion. Of this, approximately ¥15 billion is due to the impact of the appreciation of the yen and approximately ¥15 billion is due to lower-than-expected sales.
   
3. In the Pictures segment, operating income is expected to be lower by approximately ¥13 billion due to restructuring charges, a decline in revenue as a result of the economic
4. slowdown and the impact of the appreciation of the yen.
   
5. In the Financial Services segment, operating income (loss) is expected to be lower by approximately ¥65 billion mainly due to a deterioration in earnings at Sony Life Insurance Co., Ltd. resulting from a significant decline in the Japanese stock market. This is based on the assumption that the equity markets will remain at the December 31, 2008 level until March 31, 2009. As is our policy, the effects of gains and losses on investments due to market fluctuations since January 1, 2009 are not incorporated within our forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. Accordingly, market fluctuations could further impact the revised forecast.
   
6. Operating income within All Other is expected to be lower by approximately ¥11 billion due to lower-than-expected sales and additional restructuring charges in the music business which constitutes a majority of the sales of All Other.

Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it is cutting 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, a sign of how badly even the biggest and richest companies are being stung by the recession.

The layoffs appear to be a first for Microsoft, which was founded in 1975, aside from relatively limited staff cuts the software company made after acquiring companies.


The company announced the cuts as it reported an 11 percent drop in second-quarter profit, which fell short of Wall Street's expectations. Microsoft shares plunged 7 percent in pre-market trading.

Microsoft said it was being hurt by deteriorating global economic conditions and lower revenue from software for PCs. The holiday quarter of 2008 was the worst the PC market had seen in several years.

The Redmond-based company says profit slipped to $4.17 billion, or 47 cents per share, from year-ago earnings of $4.71 billion, or 50 cents per share.

It says total revenue edged up 2 percent to $16.63 billion, as software for corporate computer servers helped offset an 8 percent drop in revenue for PC software.

The results missed Wall Street's forecast for earnings of 49 cents per share on sales of $17.08 billion.

Microsoft says the job cuts will reduce operating costs by $1.5 billion as it prepares for lower revenue and earnings in the second half of the year. The company says it is unable to offer profit and revenue guidance for the rest of the year, because of the market volatility.

Microsoft said it was being hurt by deteriorating global economic conditions and lower revenue from software for PCs. The holiday quarter of 2008 was the worst the PC market had seen in several years.