Sony Forecasts Profits at Games Unit

Updated from 1:57 a.m. EST

TOKYO (TheStreet) -- Sony(SNE Quote) said Thursday it targets a return to profitability for its games business in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011.

The Japanese electronics company also said it targets annual operating income margins of 5% and a return on equity of 10% in its core hardware businesses of TV, game, and digital imaging by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

Sony said about 80% of its planned cost cuts of 330 billion yen ($3.71 billion) for the current fiscal year have so far been achieved.

The company also said it forecasts a return of its LCD TV business to profitability in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011, and achieving a 20% worldwide market share on a unit basis in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013.

"Our work is already bearing fruit," said CEO Howard Stringer, in outlining Sony's turnaround strategy at the company's Tokyo headquarters. "We still have more work to do."

The maker of the PlayStation game console is headed for its second straight year of losses in the current fiscal year ending March 2010, battered by the global slowdown and sliding prices of gadgets.

Stringer said Sony has been uniting its sprawling businesses, bringing together purchasing for parts and other supplies, for instance, which had been previously divided and less efficient.

-- Reported by Joseph Woelfel in New York .

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