Companies Sony movies takes $1bn write down in its third quarter BL PREMIUM

Tokyo — Sony will take a ¥112bn ($1bn) write down in its movie business after reviewing the future profitability of its operations. The company said on Monday that it would book the charge in the financial third quarter and was examining how that would affect its forecasts. To offset part of the loss, the company also said it would sell shares in the medical web service M3 to Goldman Sachs’s Japanese unit, in a deal worth about ¥37bn. The announcement comes two weeks after Sony said the CEO of Sony Entertainment, Michael Lynton, was stepping down after a 13-year run. The studio has struggled recently, including with last year’s Ghostbusters sequel and a movie based on the Angry Birds video game. Sony warned in June the division was at a risk of posting more losses. "There has been a suspicion in the market that Sony doesn’t have a firm grip on the movie business, but still the amount is a surprise," said Kazunori Ito, an analyst at Morningstar Investment Services. "That said, with L...