Revenue Slips at Sony

The company's music division saw sales drop 60.1% to 56.3 billion yen and operating income fall 25.6% to 12 billion yen. But those declines may overstate the music business' problems. In August, Sony merged its U.S.-based music business with that of Bertelsmann to create Sony BMG. Because of that merger, Sony warned that its music results were not comparable with those of prior periods.

One of the company's few highlights was in its pictures division, which includes its film and television studios. Thanks largely to the success of the Seinfeld and Spider-Man 2 DVDs, the picture business posted an increase in sales of 12.1% to 203.1 billion yen, and a jump in operating income of 232.2% to 18.6 billion yen.