Second quarter sales figures are coming in.
The Sony Corporation has reported sales of $13.4bn, a fall of 6.9% compared with the same quarter of last year. Operating income decreased by $300m to $139m, with net income $9m, a decrease of $470m over a comparable period in 2002. Music sales decreased by 8.8%, but with restructuring at a cost of 1,000 jobs, operating loss decreased by $33m.
MTV owner Viacom Q2 revenues were up 10% to a record $6.42b from $5.85b for the same quarter last year – the growth coming 22% in Cable Networks, 10% in both Television and Video and 9% in its billboard advertising business. For the six months ended 30 Jun, Viacom reported revenues of $12.47 bn, an 8% increase over 2002. For the six months ended 30 Jun, operating income increased 13% to $2.30bn from $2.04bn. Q2 '03 net earnings increased 21% to a record $660m, from $547m. For the first half of '03, Viacom reported net earnings of $1.12bn, compared with $914m.
All those figures! Basically Sony aren't doing so well, Viacom are booming.