Sony Expects $3 Billion Loss for the Year

Sony, the Japanese electronics company, said Thursday that it expected to post a record annual operating loss of nearly $3 billion because of the rapid deterioration of the global economy.

via Sony Expects $3 Billion Loss for the Year – NYTimes.com.

That’s an awful lot of zeros

– Gil Amelio, when Apple had it’s first billion dollar loss quarter

It should be noted that way back when, Apple was expected to be (and close to being) sold to both Sun and Sony. And today, the Mac is celebrating it’s 25th birthday and Apple is doing quite well, while Sony is, well, not. Neither is Microsoft, who back in the day was the evil nemesis Mike Spindler tried to take on head to head and almost killed the company doing so — and if you look at the numbers, Apple could buy Sun outright from the profit from this last quarter.

If nothing else, this is a good reminder that EVERYTHING is cyclical. Apple, too, will some day slip or someone else will sneak around them and take the lead in the race for a while. Companies we now think of as dead or fading will — some of them — revitalize themselves and move forward again.

None of this is forever. And that’s a good thing. Apple is one of those rare companies that has really put it all together and continued to push an innovate, but other companies innovate, too, so it’ll be fascinating to see what we’re saying about all of this in another five years, no?

(via daringfireball)

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  • shandrew

    “Not doing well” when applied to companies has many, many meanings. During the Spindler/Amelio era it meant that Apple was a few quarters from bankruptcy, trading on the stock market for much lower than book value.

    Microsoft “not doing well” has seen its earnings decline to a mere $4 billion per quarter, but because of the lack of growth, their stock has performed miserably since Ballmer took over. Their “not doing well” is still worth more than Apple's or Google's “kicking ass”.

    Yahoo “not doing well” is earning $200 million per quarter while Google is making a lot more. Despite their woes, Wall Street still values Yahoo at 77% the market cap of Sony!

    Sometimes when people look at yearly stock performance, especially in silicon valley, they lose perspective about what makes a successful business. 99% of nasdaq/nyse public companies would love to be in the position where Yahoo is today, and 99.9% of public companies would want to be doing as well as microsoft.

  • shandrew

    “Not doing well” when applied to companies has many, many meanings. During the Spindler/Amelio era it meant that Apple was a few quarters from bankruptcy, trading on the stock market for much lower than book value.

    Microsoft “not doing well” has seen its earnings decline to a mere $4 billion per quarter, but because of the lack of growth, their stock has performed miserably since Ballmer took over. Their “not doing well” is still worth more than Apple's or Google's “kicking ass”.

    Yahoo “not doing well” is earning $200 million per quarter while Google is making a lot more. Despite their woes, Wall Street still values Yahoo at 77% the market cap of Sony!

    Sometimes when people look at yearly stock performance, especially in silicon valley, they lose perspective about what makes a successful business. 99% of nasdaq/nyse public companies would love to be in the position where Yahoo is today, and 99.9% of public companies would want to be doing as well as microsoft.

  • Total

    Which links for me back to Macworld. Apple can leave it now, when things are great. What happens if things get back to the late 1990s and Apple needs it again?