Financial impact of PSN hack downplayed by analyst

by Garnett Lee, Apr 26, 2011 4:30pm PDT

With the PlayStation Network (PSN) downtime looking like it will stretch at least two weeks before it's all said and done, and possibly longer, I reached out to Wedbush Securities managing director Michael Pachter for his thoughts on the potential financial fallout for Sony. Pachter estimates that PSN does something like $10 million a week in revenue, yielding around $3 million in gross profits. He termed the immediate loss of that revenue as a "low impact," financially.

The long term effects, though, could be another matter. "The more serious issue is a breach of trust, and some bad will because of the inconvenience," said Pachter. That too can be overcome, though, in his opinion. "If they offer some free stuff and continue to follow up, this will all be forgotten in a few months."

In all likelihood that will be the case. Should any of the potentially stolen data be put to ill-use, though, the stakes could dramatically change.


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