Sony has increased its annual loss forecast by almost five times to about $2.15bn due to an impairment charge related to its mobile communications segment.
Announcing the sixth profit warning, with the latest loss prediction up from its earlier prediction of $460m, Sony said the forecast had been "modified to address the significant change in the market and competitive environment of the mobile business".
The company said it would fail to pay a dividend to shareholders for the first time.
The company is anticipating losses from a quarterly write-down on the unit’s value of about $1.6bn. Tthe Japanese firm expects overall sales and revenues forecasts at $76bn.
Sony plans to lay down 15% of its mobile division staff by mid-March 2015, resulting in the retrenchment of about 1,000 employees from the overall 7,100 staff.
Further details on job loss will be reported in October.
Reuters cited Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai as saying: "I will be at the center of making sure that restructuring will be completed this year and that we will turn a profit in the next financial year. A recovery is my responsibility."
In addition to the mobile unit, Sony’s television business has also been in trouble, although other operations, particularly the Playstation games console, have turned out to be more successful.
