Sony has released a revised forecast for the now-finished fiscal year, noting that the company is expected to post a $3.1 billion loss, instead of the $857 million in profits forecasted back in February.
"Based on information currently available to Sony, our currently known costs associated with the unauthorized network access are estimated to be approximately ¥14 billion ($171.4 million) the fiscal year ending March 13, 2012," Sony explained on a slide describing its losses. This does not include costs associated with lawsuits filed against the company, as the outcome of that litigation is hard to estimate for either side.
The company estimated a ¥17 billion ($208.1 million) loss of operating income this year due to the recent earthquake, and Sony also described "incremental" losses, such as repair of structures and loss of inventory. "The impact of these expenses is approximately ¥11 billion ($134.7 million); however, Sony has insurance policies which cover certain damages to fixed assets and inventories as well as the associated restoration costs, which are expected to offset almost all of these losses and expenses in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011, as the recoveries from insurance claims are deemed probable."
The natural disaster's impact of operating income for the fiscal year ending in 2012 is estimated to be a staggering ¥150 billion yen ($1.84 billion).
Sony admits that the situation could become worse if identify theft or credit card fraud is detected. "So far, we have not received any confirmed reports of customer identity theft issues, nor confirmed any misuse of credit cards from the cyber-attack," Sony stated, as reported by Joystiq. "Those are key variables, and if that changes, the costs could change."
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