Japanese electronics manufacturers are going through their worst period in recent years, posting losses in every quarter, and their credit ratings have been relegated to the lowest levels.
The rating of Sony, which posted losses for the seventh consecutive quarter, was downgraded by rating agency Moody’s to Baa3 from Baa2, citing increasingly lower demand of the company in the segment of TV sets and photo cameras. The outlook associated to the rating is negative.
This is the third time this year when Sony’s rating was downgraded by Moody’s. Also, Standard & Poor’s cut the company’s long term rating twice. Sharp and Panasonic are in the same situation, their rating was downgraded by both credit agencies Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s.
Panasonic is a Japanese multinational electronics company based in Osaka founded in 1918 by Konosuke Matsushita.
Sony’s rating dropped six levels, from Aa3 in 2003, to a current rating of Baa2. The company that invented the Walkman has been struggling for years to keep pace with Apple and Samsung, but failed to launch a revolutionary product.
Sony recorded a loss of $195 million in the third quarter ended September 30, while analysts were expecting a profit. Kazuo Hirai, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sony said that the company will lay off 10,000 employees and will forfeit assets, as the focus is now on mobile devices, games and cameras. Sony Corporation, a Japanese multinational group headquartered in Tokyo is presently ranked 87th in the Fortune Global List 500.
Sharp, the largest manufacturer of liquid crystal displays in Japan and one of the largest electronics manufacturers in the world has recently announced that it expects losses of nearly six billion dollars this fiscal year, as the company representatives are having doubts that the company will survive. Sharp announcement came just a day after Panasonic announced that its losses could be up to $9.5 billion.
Sharp Corporation, the Japanese multinational company headquartered in Osaka, was founded in September 1912 and had over 55,000 employees worldwide in June last year.
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