Some of the biggest names in consumer electronics and technology — Sony, Toshiba, Nintendo and NEC Electronics — reported miserable earnings and intensely gloomy outlooks Thursday, further proof that the economic slowdown had expanded well beyond big-ticket items like cars and houses, and revealing the extent of consumer pessimism around the globe.
Toshiba and NEC both joined the lengthening list of companies to warn of a full-year loss — Sony had already done so last week — and announced job cuts and other efforts to reduce costs.
Nintendo remains one of the few Japanese consumer electronics giants to still expect a handsome profit for the current business year. But even its hugely popular Wii game console is not recession-proof — as many analysts had long expected. Nintendo lowered its earnings expectations on Thursday.
As the global economic downturn drags on, ordinary consumers around the globe, scared by mounting job losses and last year’s historic stock market rout, have slowed spending to a trickle. Companies, too, have cut back investments on everything from factory machinery and research to photocopiers, computers, information technology upgrades and business travel.
“Demand does not seem to be getting any better from the fourth quarter on,” Sony’s senior vice president Naofumi Hara said at a news conference, according to Reuters.
As a result, companies in virtually every sector of the economy — from the software giant SAP to automakers around the world — have had to lay off workers, further depressing consumers’ willingness to buy anything but the bare essentials.
On Thursday, Toshiba, whose products span from chips to household appliances, slashed its outlook for the year through March, saying it now expected a record net loss of yen280 billion, or $3.13 billion, rather than the yen70 billion profit it had forecast last September. That forecast was made before the collapse of…