The cost of the Japanese earthquake and the subsequent attack by hackers on Sony’s PlayStation network will wipe US$2bn from the company’s operating profits, it warned.
The company originally anticipated a 70bn yen (US$855m) profit. It is now likely to make a 260bn (US$3.4bn) loss.
The company said the impact of the earthquake on sales is estimated to be about 22bn yen.
“Based on information currently available to Sony, our currently known costs associated with the unauthorised network access are estimated to be approximately 14bn yen in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012,” the company warned.
The PlayStation Network was taken offline in recent weeks following a devastating cyber attack on Sony’s servers that saw hackers access information on more than 77m users. The Sony Online Network (SOE) was also hit in an attack and a further 25m users’ details were accessed, including 24,000 credit and debit card details.
