Sony’s profit shoots up on camera sales

Sony Corp. reported Thursday that profit rose to the highest level in three quarters, buoyed by sales of Cyber-shot cameras.

Net income rose to 73.7 billion yen ($645 million), or 70.09 yen a share, in the quarter that ended Sept. 30, from 1.7 billion yen a year earlier, Tokyo-based Sony said. Sales rose 12% to 2.08 trillion yen ($18.3 billion).

Losses from the games unit widened as PlayStation 3 sales trailed those of Nintendo Co.’s cheaper Wii console, undermining Chairman Howard Stringer’s hopes to revive a company that’s lost more than a quarter of its market value in five months. Sony may need to boost sales this quarter, the year’s biggest period for earnings, to meet profitability targets for the year.

The company raised profit and revenue forecasts for the year ending March 2008, citing gains from the sale of real estate and shares in subsidiary Sony Financial Holdings Inc.

Chief Financial Officer Nobuyuki Oneda said the company might fall short of its target of selling 11 million PS3 consoles this fiscal year. Sony will seek to break even in the games division during the fiscal second half, he said.

Sony may face increasing competition from Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. during the Christmas shopping season amid strong sales of the software maker’s “Halo 3,” the third installment of an alien-shooting franchise. Microsoft said the game had generated $300 million in sales in the week after its Sept. 25 debut, becoming the fastest-selling video game.

The movie division, which produced “Spider-Man 3” and “Resident Evil: Extinction,” generated 2.7 billion yen ($23.7 million) in operating profit, compared with a 15.3-billion-yen loss a year earlier.