Sony Profit Outlook Misses Estimates as PS5 Appeal Wanes.

Sony Group Corp. has announced that it expects operating income of ¥1.28 trillion ($8.2 billion) for the year ending in March, falling short of analyst predictions due to declining sales of PlayStation 5 hardware. The company also plans to repurchase up to 2.46% of its shares for ¥250 billion and conduct a five-for-one stock split starting on October 1. Sony's music publishing and smartphone image sensors units are expected to contribute to its business growth, benefiting from the weaker yen. However, Sony's potential $26 billion bid for Paramount Global has caused concern among investors, and the company is also pursuing other deals to expand its digital content collection. In the gaming sector, Sony has stated that it will not release any titles from its major first-party franchises in the coming year, and sales of the PlayStation 5 are declining. Sony sold 4.5 million PS5 consoles in the March quarter, and the number of active users on its PlayStation Network decreased to 118 million. [Extracted from the article]