Fitch cuts Sony, Panasonic credit rating to 'junk'
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The two Japanese manufacturers are downgraded in different press releases with different reasons, so let’s take a look at each separately.
Sony in particular is downgraded due to a weakness in home entertainment and mobile products, and despite a recent improvement in devices including smartphones. Sony’s traditional strengths like TVs and cameras however have a steady downward momentum.
"Fitch believes that continuing weakness in the home entertainment and sound and mobile products and communications segments will offset the relatively stable music and pictures segments and improvement in the devices segment which makes semiconductors and components," Fitch said.
The downgrade for Sony is big, by three notches, down from BB- to BBB- and will make Sony’s financial and credit operations costlier.
Sony however is undergoing a transition under new chief executive Kaz Hirai, and in terms of smartphones at least we are seeing some improvement.
Panasonic on the other hand has tried to come back with smartphones in Western markets in the recent past with devices like the Eluga, but has now killed that effort as competition mounts up.
source: Reuters
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12 Comments
2. darac posted on 22 Nov 2012, 04:15 10 0
This reflects the state of Japan really.
The country is going through collective apathy.
3. lubba posted on 22 Nov 2012, 04:16 3 9
Panasonic will die off slowly than Sony. These two companies and others alike are moving too slow. They won't change with the times. That's their downfall.
4. cripton805 posted on 22 Nov 2012, 04:36 2 9
I was just thinking about this right before this article. Sony needs to innovate on a more.creative productive level. They tend to innovate on propriatary things to Sony and costly mass production...
Cough cough. PS3 processor 7 SPEs, Mini discs, UMDs, memory chips, etc...
I think Blu Ray was Sony? At least they did one right thing... Sort of...
If you're smart, you'll know why.
7. Atlas posted on 22 Nov 2012, 10:05 1 0
I think they also helped with making the CD and produced the first colour phone (SE).
10. cripton805 posted on 23 Nov 2012, 11:31 0 0
Please read the comment again. There's a couple key words that you missed.
6. ryq24 posted on 22 Nov 2012, 08:44 1 0
of the two, sony have a better chance of bouncing back but they will never be number 1 again. koreans and chinese companies will rule the world one day if not already.
8. Jyakotu posted on 22 Nov 2012, 17:12 1 0
Sony has a much larger portfolio than Panasonic does, so in all honesty, they can always come back. PlayStation is still huge, plus they have laptops, TVs, Walkman, headphones, smartphones, etc. The list goes on.
11. daniel_bargs posted on 23 Nov 2012, 20:02 0 0
if only they price their products parallel to the competition. Sony has $400 netbook while asus has $250 with exactly the same specs!
