Sony weighing sale of film, TV business

Rollins

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http://nypost.com/2017/01/19/sony-is-weighing-a-sale-of-film-tv-business/amp/

Sony is weighing a sale of film, TV business
By Claire Atkinson
By Claire Atkinson

January 19, 2017 7:10pm


No wonder Sony Entertainment boss Michael Lynton is leaving.

sony.jpg


Tokyo’s Sony Corp. is listening to bank pitches about a potential sale of its film and TV operations, several sources told The Post.

“Every bank is pushing pitches,” said one person familiar with the process. Another confirmed that banks have paid a flurry of visits to Tokyo to advise on a sale of Sony’s film and TV business.


The Post was first to report (Dec. 1:cool: that the Japanese owners were ready to listen to bid proposals if they had the right number attached.

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves has long signaled interest in acquiring the asset, though several Chinese bidders could be in the wings.

Sony CEO Kaz Hirai has denied any intent to sell the firm during the five years he’s been in the top slot at the company. Still, he has not appointed a successor to Lynton, despite knowing of his intention to depart for some time. That has sparked speculation that there may be no position to fill.

Hirai isn’t interested in selling Sony Music, sources said. The company is in good shape and is a big cash cow for the firm.

The film unit, however, is struggling. Sony/Columbia ended 2016 in fifth place with a market share of 8 percent, behind Disney, Warner, Fox and Universal, according to Box Office Mojo.

A source said Sony hasn’t yet committed to a sale at this time, because the firm wants to see how Sony’s movies perform this summer.

“They want to see how the “Emoji Movie” movie does because they think they have a franchise and it might help them get a better price,” said a source, the film, which features a poop emoji, comes out on August 4.

Lynton said he was exiting to become chairman of Snap Inc., which owns Snapchat.

Sony reps in Japan couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
 
I think they could keep them. They can be profitable I'd bet . I'd hate to see Sony rely too heavily on PlayStation.
 
“They want to see how the “Emoji Movie” movie does because they think they have a franchise and it might help them get a better price,” said a source, the film, which features a poop emoji, comes out on August 4.

Ugh. Yeah, that movie sounds totally bankable. Great decision!
 
Would be very interesting in an era where content distributors are vertically integrating content creation (see: Comcast/AT&T)
 
Might as well sell them off. The best division at Sony is also their least known service..... insurance. That division has kept the company alive as it's highly profitable and performs consistently well.

Over the past 5 or so years, Sony has been a trainwreck. The stock market and most large companies have been on fire with record stock prices and profits, and Sony goes against the grain sinking into the red. Go figure.

- Probably $10 billion of losses by now
- Fired 10,000s of employees, including shutting down lots of gaming studios
- Spun off TV/audio division
- Spun off semiconductors division
- Sold off real estate (office buildings), including iconic Toyko HQ and US office in New York
- Sold off PC business
- Sold off partnership stake with LED production with Samsung
- Sold off Sony Online (PC online gaming)
- Sold off battery business
- Sold off some kind of affiliation with a medical company called M3
- Sold off stake in Olympus

https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=sony+sells+divisions

If I was Sony, I make that insurance arm a separate company, which would be valued in the stratosphere as it does very well. Keep the PS and media divisions together as a media play. But make it a separate company as well.

Get rid of whatever is left.

You'd have a Sony Financial and a Sony Media. If they did this 10 years ago, they'd be in much better shape. The signs were there, but they didn't really do anything until the past 3 years. The tv division has been a huge loser for a decade yet they still have it. Yet, they dumped some assets that were doing better, but used them as a cash injection..... kind of Sega dumping their great 2k division to T2 to raise money.
 
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https://arstechnica.com/business/20...ies-have-been-flops-dvds-sales-falling/?amp=1

Sony missed writing on the wall for DVD sales, takes nearly $1B writedown
4 hours ago

Sony has finally figured out what the rest of us already knew—people just aren’t buying physical media like they used to.

In a Monday statement to investors, the company attributed the “downward revision… to a lowering of previous expectations regarding the home entertainment business, mainly driven by an acceleration of market decline.”

The statement continued: "A majority of the goodwill that was impaired was originally recorded at the time of the acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in 1989.”

As such, the Japanese corporate giant is taking a $977 million (112.1 billion yen) writedown in its movie business. That's driven in large part by the fact that most of us are watching a lot of movies and TV shows via streaming services these days.

“The decline in the DVD and Blu-ray market was faster than we anticipated,” Takashi Iida, a Sony spokesman, told Bloomberg News.

In addition to the home entertainment business losses, two of Sony Pictures' biggest 2016 productions, Ghostbusters and Angry Birds, did not do particularly well in theaters. Ars liked the former, but we skipped a formal review of the latter.

Earlier this month, Sony’s entertainment chief, Michael Lynton, announced that he would be leaving the company after 13 years in order to focus on being the chairman of Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat. He is set to leave Sony in six months.
 
https://arstechnica.com/business/20...ies-have-been-flops-dvds-sales-falling/?amp=1

Sony missed writing on the wall for DVD sales, takes nearly $1B writedown
4 hours ago

Sony has finally figured out what the rest of us already knew—people just aren’t buying physical media like they used to.

In a Monday statement to investors, the company attributed the “downward revision… to a lowering of previous expectations regarding the home entertainment business, mainly driven by an acceleration of market decline.”

The statement continued: "A majority of the goodwill that was impaired was originally recorded at the time of the acquisition of Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc. in 1989.”

As such, the Japanese corporate giant is taking a $977 million (112.1 billion yen) writedown in its movie business. That's driven in large part by the fact that most of us are watching a lot of movies and TV shows via streaming services these days.

“The decline in the DVD and Blu-ray market was faster than we anticipated,” Takashi Iida, a Sony spokesman, told Bloomberg News.

In addition to the home entertainment business losses, two of Sony Pictures' biggest 2016 productions, Ghostbusters and Angry Birds, did not do particularly well in theaters. Ars liked the former, but we skipped a formal review of the latter.

Earlier this month, Sony’s entertainment chief, Michael Lynton, announced that he would be leaving the company after 13 years in order to focus on being the chairman of Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat. He is set to leave Sony in six months.
Wow. No wonder Michael Lynton decided to quit. With him leaving in the summer, just watch as all the bad news comes out now.
 
If i was Sony i would not only get out of film and TV but i'd scrap any plans for PS5. They had a good run, but PlayStation is played out. You can only go to the well so many times.

Aw sh!t, it's not 2006 anymore. I really need to get this persona thing in check.
 
I think the only question left is at what point does Sony just become a gaming and insurance company?
And then what? Last year, Konami decided to go from a videogame/casino game company to mostly a casino game company. I was just in Lass Vegas and their building is huge and quite noticeable right from the airport. They basically trimmed the fat, so to speak. I think that people are making more out of the Kojima thing than the reality of what is going on. There is BIG money in the casino business. Videogames are actually a gamble.
 
And then what? Last year, Konami decided to go from a videogame/casino game company to mostly a casino game company. I was just in Lass Vegas and their building is huge and quite noticeable right from the airport. They basically trimmed the fat, so to speak. I think that people are making more out of the Kojima thing than the reality of what is going on. There is BIG money in the casino business. Videogames are actually a gamble.
Oh I'm not ragging on them for that in particular, people hate on Konami for doing what they did, but those are the decisions you sometimes have to make for the bottom line. At this point of the juncture, I think they need to look at making similar decisions in the long run, but Sony has a stronger and more trusted brand than Konami ever did as well. Unless they invest in bad games/hardware or repeat mistakes made on the PS3, the gaming division can maintain it's position.
 
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