Sony Pictures hack won't affect bottom line, Sony Corp. reports

Sony Corp. on Wednesday trimmed its forecast of losses for the year that ends in March and said it doesn't expect the hack at Sony Pictures to hurt its finances overall.

The entertainment and electronics giant delayed the announcement of its earnings for the October-December quarter, citing internal difficulties arising from the hack at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

But it issued new earnings forecasts Wednesday and said it was benefiting from strong sales of gaming and network services and devices.

The company is forecasting a loss of 170 billion yen ($1.4 billion US) for the fiscal year, an improvement from its earlier forecast of a 230 billion yen loss.

The company reported a 40 billion yen loss last fiscal year.

Stronger than expected sales of the PlayStation 4, higher network services revenue, robust sales of devices and a slight improvement in its financial services business will help counter a decline in the mobile communications business.

Both Sony's music and movies businesses benefited from a weakening in the Japanese yen, which improves profit earned in dollars when it is brought back to Japan.