Sony Corporation reported mostly upbeat third quarter (October to December) fiscal 2019 results that saw adjusted earnings and revenues improve year-on-year despite negative foreign exchange rates.

Overall revenue rose three percent to $22.6 billion but operating profit (the profit a company generates from its core business function) sank 20 percent to $2.76 billion. GAAP net income for Q3 2019 fell a huge 46.5% to $2.1 billion year-on-year or $1.68 per share (¥229.5 billion or ¥182.89 per share), mostly due to lower operating income and higher income taxes. On the other hand, adjusted net income came to $1.97 billion (¥216.2 billion) compared to $1.44 billion (¥157.9 billion) in the year-ago quarter.

Sony reported its quarterly aggregate operating revenues rose 2.6% year-on-year to $22.8 billion (¥2.46 trillion). It said the improvement reflects a significant increase in its Financial Services and Imaging & Sensing Solutions (I&SS) segment sales and a decrease in Game & Network Services (G&NS) segment sales. 

Sales at G&NS fell 20% year-on-year to $5.8 billion (¥6.3 trillion) due to a considerable decrease in PlayStation4 (PS4) hardware unit sales; a drop in sales of non-first-party software titles and negative impact of foreign exchange rates. G&NS's operating income came to $489 million (¥53.5 trillion) compared to $667.5 million (¥73.1 trillion) in Q3 2018.

Sales at Sony Music grew by 3.6% to $1.98 billion (¥216.9 billion). The improvement is attributable to higher sales for music publishing resulting from the consolidation of EMI, and higher sales for recorded music attributable to an increase in streaming revenues.

The unit's operating income stood at $331 million (¥36.3 billion), which is a decrease from $1.34 billion (¥147.1 billion) in the prior-year quarter. The reduction was due to a remeasurement gain of $1.07 billion (¥116.9 billion) resulting from the consolidation of EMI in Q3 2018.

Sales from pictures decreased by 14.7% to $2.15 billion (¥236 billion) on account of lower revenues for motion pictures and lower sales for media networks owing to the impact of the channel portfolio review. The segment reported an operating income of $49.3 million (¥5.4 billion) compared to$106 million (¥11.6 billion) in the prior-year quarter. 

Sales at Electronics Products & Solutions (EP&S) came in at $5.94 billion (¥650.4 billion), down 8.8% year-on-year. Sony said this was due to a decrease in unit sales of smartphones and televisions, and the negative impact of foreign exchange rates. The segment's operating income, however, improved to $733 million (¥80.3 billion) from $604 million (¥66.2 billion) in the year-ago quarter due to a reduction in operating costs.  

Sales at SS&I improved 29.4% to $2.72 billion (¥298 billion) and were driven by a significant increase in sales of image sensors for mobile products. Operating income was $687 million (¥75.2 billion) compared to $425 million (¥46.5 billion) in the prior-year quarter.

Sales at financial services rose a huge 148.9% to $3.7 billion (¥407.2 billion) supported by a significant revenue increase at Sony Life. The segment's operating income stood at $298 million (¥32.6 billion) compared to $346 million (¥37.9 billion) a year ago, indicating net losses related to market fluctuations.