Toshiba Quarterly Profit Jumps Fivefold

Profit at Toshiba Corp. jumped fivefold in the April-June quarter on brisk sales of personal computers and semiconductors, the company said Friday.
Net income rose to 20.63 billion yen ($173.8 million) in the electronics company's fiscal first quarter from 4.04 billion yen a year ago, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement.
Sales climbed 14.6 percent to 1.66 trillion yen ($13.9 billion) from 1.45 trillion yen.
The company said its semiconductor business saw higher sales in NAND flash memory chips and large-scale integrated, or LSI, chips for use in flat-panel televisions and other digital electronic appliances.
Its personal computer business grew especially in the U.S. market, Toshiba said.
Special profits from the sale of real estate and its stake in a music-content venture to Britain's EMI Group PLC also helped its profit soar, it said.
Toshiba also said it has revised its forecast of profit for the first-half of fiscal year to March 2008 to 40 billion yen ($336.9 million), up from the 10 billion estimate announced April 26. The company's profit during the same period last year was 38.8 billion yen.
Toshiba had project that its profit will fall about 13 percent in the current fiscal year ending March 2008, on a 5 percent gain in sales. The company said Friday it was currently reviewing its forecast for the full year.
Toshiba reports its earnings based on U.S. accounting standards.