Sony expects huge net loss after earthquake and PSN hack

The electronics company expects to post losses of £1.97bn

Sony has revealed it expects to post a huge net loss of £1.97bn in its end-of-year results on Thursday.

The announcement came in a forecast revision today.

The technology giant has largely blamed the impact of the Japan earthquake and the recent hacking of its PlayStation Network (PSN) for increased costs and complications.

The earthquake itself is expected to have impacted Sony's sales by £167m. It points to idle facility costs at manufacturing sites and restoration expenses as the main setbacks.

It also expects £106m worth of costs as a result of the recent cyber attack on its PSN network.

The PSN costs include insurance for customers who had personal information stolen, the cost of welcome back programmes for customers, support costs, legal costs and network security enhancements.

Sony does, however, indicate that this figure might change, and it is based on the information currently available.

It also said £2.7bn of deferred tax assets in Japan also had to be written off due to US tax legislation.