business

U.S. hedge fund boss lobbies for breakup of Sony

14 Comments
By YURI KAGEYAMA and RYAN NAKASHIMA

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14 Comments
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Breaking up Sony might not be a bad idea. Right now its too big and less nimble than smaller companies.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Phase I: publish article, create a buzz in the anaylst sphere

Phase II: use the buzz to manipulate share price

Phase III: scare investors into believing the corporation is mismanaged

Phase IV: prompt vote eventually leading to divesture of a business unit (IE Sony Entertainment)

Phase V: obsene profit, tapdance on the way to the bank, champagne shower in a new Rolls Royce

13 ( +16 / -3 )

Bad idea, what should be done is to force Sony Entertainment and Sony Hardware to get along. As far as making the hardware section more profitable, move some assembly outside of Japan and find ways to bring the cost down.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

BOJ/Abenomics has flooded j-market with trillions of yen, now at the moment no major japanese company will listen to a foreign voice.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Still, Sony's stock is up 86% in 2013.

With its stock price increasing, Sony won't need any cash infusion from Loeb. Anyway, the reason why Sony has an entertainment division in the first place, goes all the way back to VHS vs Betamax.

"What we learned from VHS vs Betamax was it wasn't just the hardware that was important, but also the software," Sony's product specialist Eric Kingdon, who has been with Sony for 25 years, says: "That's why we sought to acquire, firstly, an interest in the music business and then later in motion pictures, while retaining strong partnerships with the studios. As a result of that format war we became acutely aware of how all the pieces fit together in one big jigsaw."

Having an entertainment division gives you an edge in any format war. Content drives sales of the hardware, not the other way around.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Do not like these people ruin your country, look at what they did to the USA!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

isoducky

Sectionalization within companies are becoming an aliment in all large companies today. The problem being how to divide the profit IF it goes right and how to deflect the blame game when things goes wrong. The large trade houses like Mitsubishi, Itochu and or Sumitomo had devised a system which many companies should take note.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

USA entertainment business is barely alive, Movie makers, movie stars, TV production companies will hate to have Sony breaks up. Sony distribute for them, Sony keeps them alive. It is none of outsiders' business to tell Sony what kind of business Sony keeps. Flat Screen of Sony is popular now. It is just like telling Mitsubishi breaks its auto industry and its electronic industry or many other successful companies.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Sony now began creating innovative products and still very popular in USA. The corporation structure is not like FaceBook was when Third Point LLC broke up FaceBook, Trying to break up Japanese corporations> Different kind of operations than USA corporations. Sony will be alive. Third Point has to worry about of various Reguklatories of US Govt. now. To be involved to Foreign Countries' business? Several boards will nose in.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

So, all the big Japanese electronics companies are in the shit! Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp are just the recent news. The car makers are going down the spout as well. Good luck rebuilding the economy with your imperialistic views and radical economic policies Mr. Abe! Japan is doomed!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

This is going to be good when the Japanese government announces 3% GDP growth tomorrow.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Vulture hedge funds trying to manipulate markets.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@presto Yes, that and also having the leverage to exert pressure to force some action on the part of Sony. He is trying to promulgate and exploit a weakness of Sony that he can actually make worse by applying pressure, forcing them to (re)act in response to his high-profile prevarications.

The phrase

analysts latched onto the idea as a way for Sony to unlock hidden value

is indicative of the fact that the finance industry stands to profit if such a course were adopted, but no one else. The so-called "hidden value" would simply be funny money swept up and away in trading transactions, with no impact on the real economy.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

I think that they Sony should devolve Sony Life too. The Japanese are good with things that they can imagine, and financials can't be imagined, and Movies TV can't be imagined as much as one might think since so much if the business is concept, script and distribution system. "Music" can be imagined if "idols."

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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