By Mariko Yasu - Jun 4, 2012 7:36 AM GMT+0700
Sony Corp. (6758) dropped below 1,000 yen in Tokyo trading for the first time since 1980, when the Walkman was new, after Japan’s currency gained and U.S. economic data added to concerns the global economy is slowing.
The shares fell as much as 2.3 percent to 990 yen and traded at 1,000 yen ($12.80) as of 9:25 a.m. on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Sony, which recorded an all-time intraday high of 16,950 yen in March 2000, last traded below 1,000 yen on Aug. 7, 1980, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Kazuo Hirai, president and chief executive officer of Sony Corp. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Sony, a trendsetter in the 1980s with the music player and the first compact-disc player, has posted four straight annual losses as it failed to come up with hit products and the yen surged, while consumers flocked to devices made by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Japan’s currency gained against all 16 major counterparts last week, rising to the highest level against the euro in more than 11 years.
Sony, Japan’s biggest exporter of consumer electronics, extended a 28-percent drop this year amid concerns the U.S. recovery is faltering while growth slows in China and Europe’s debt crisis worsens. U.S. payrolls climbed by 69,000 last month, less than the most-pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, Labor Department figures showed June 1 in Washington.
Japan’s currency reached 95.60 against the euro last week, the strongest since Nov. 30, 2000, and touched 77.66 against the U.S. dollar on June 1, the highest since Feb. 14, as investors sought haven assets.
Record Loss
Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai has already presided over a 42 percent decline in Sony’s market value since starting in the job on April 1. The 51-year-old executive took over from Howard Stringer after the maker of Bravia televisions posted a record loss last fiscal year, when Japan’s strongest earthquake and floods in Thailand crippled plants, while attacks by hackers disrupted Sony’s online entertainment network.
Sony posted a record 457 billion-yen loss in the year ended March. Its main television operation lost about 700 billion yen over the past eight years amid falling prices for TVs and competition from South Korea’s Samsung and LG Electronics Inc. The Tokyo-based company’s run of four straight full-year losses is the worst since Sony was listed in 1958.
Worth $125 billion in March 2000, Sony is now valued at less than $13 billion, compared with $525 billion for Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. (005930) and $150 billion for Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net
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