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Cost cutting is finally delivering benefits for electronics giant Sony Corp. which posted its first quarterly profit in a year and narrowed its full-year loss projections, reports the Wall Street Journal [9].

The company's net profit in its fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31 was 79.2 billion yen, compared with a 10.4 billion yen profit in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.9% to 2.24 trillion yen.

The newspaper notes the company has reaffirmed that its cost-cutting measures should finally deliver profitability at its closely monitored electronics and videogame divisions. The Journal adds that restoring profitability at the two business units, which contribute about two-thirds of Sony's revenue, has been the focus of a restructuring effort implemented at the height of last year's worldwide recession. 

Sony closed 20% of its plants, eliminated 20,000 jobs and overhauled its supply chain to reduce its costs by 330 billion yen ($3.6 billion), says the Journal.

"We think we've bottomed out and we can do fairly well going forward," Nobuyuki Onedan, Sony's CFO, told the Journal.

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