Earthquake shakes Sony's earnings

SONY has sunk to a ¥15.5 billion (£121 million) quarterly loss, hurt by a combination of the earthquake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan, a massive online security breach and plunging TV prices.

The electronics heavyweight had posted a 25.7bn profit in the April-June period the previous year. The firm yesterday lowered its profit forecast for the financial year ending March 2012 to 60bn from the 80bn it gave in May.