Sony Expects Little Financial Impact From Massive Hack

Sony expects to emerge relatively unscathed financially for the fiscal year ending March 31 from the cyberattack that caused “serious disruption” to the Sony Pictures Entertainment network and information technology infrastructure, the company said Wednesday. But for the $15 million in “investigation and remediation costs” to be recorded for Q3, Sony thinks the “impact of the cyberattack” on its overall results for the fiscal year “will not be material,” the company said. Sony Pictures expects to finish the year with a 7.3 percent revenue increase and an operating profit about 2.4 billion yen higher than a year earlier, Sony said. Though the Sony Pictures operating income target is slightly lower than in the October forecast, its revenue target actually is 3.5 percent higher than the forecast in October, a month before the cyberattack. The White House has blamed on North Korea the hack of Sony Pictures, which resulted in many emails and other confidential information being released online (see 1412180056).