Sony Group Raises Guidance on Strength of Game, Music Businesses

By Kosaku Narioka

Sony Group raised its annual earnings guidance after reporting higher third-quarter profit due to the strength of its game, music and image-sensor businesses.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Thursday that net profit rose 11% from a year earlier to 377.32 billion yen, equivalent to $2.41 billion, for the three months ended December. That beat the estimate of Y348.2 billion in a poll of analysts by data provider Visible Alpha.

Third-quarter revenue rose 0.5% from a year earlier to Y3.714 trillion.

For the fiscal year ending March, it projected that revenue would increase 2.2% to Y12.300 trillion and net profit would climb 5.9% to Y1.130 trillion. The company previously projected revenue of Y12.000 trillion and net profit of Y1.050 trillion.

It continues to expect U.S. tariffs to weigh on operating profit by Y50 billion this fiscal year.

Sony Group has spent billions of dollars in acquisitions in recent years to boost its entertainment content.

Sony's music arm said last week that it set up an investment partnership with Singapore's sovereign-wealth fund GIC to acquire music catalogs across a range of genres. In December, Sony agreed to acquire an additional stake in Peanuts Holdings, the owner of Snoopy, Charlie Brown and other characters, for about $460 million.

Meanwhile, Sony said in January that it planned to set up a joint venture with Hong Kong-listed consumer electronics maker TCL Electronics Holdings, a move that would mark an end of majority ownership in its televisions business. The company also spun off its financial business in October to focus on its entertainment businesses.

On Tuesday, videogame rival Nintendo maintained its annual forecasts for Switch 2 sales and earnings following solid quarterly results, boosted by the popularity of the new gaming device. Nintendo sold 7.0 million Switch 2 consoles in the three months ended December.

Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 04, 2026 22:48 ET (03:48 GMT)