Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Sony Is Weighing a Sale of Film, TV Business (nypost.com)

Posted by msmash on from the musical-chair dept.

Sony could be exploring the sale of its film and television unit just a week after announcing the departure of Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. From a report: 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 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.

20 of 37 comments (clear)

  1. Would be great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...maybe then they could stop fucking up every single product with copyprotection (which soley killed the MD)...

  2. Good Idea! by methano · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sony was once a technological wonderhaus and then they started buying content. Then the content guys started dictating the technology direction, mostly surrounding protecting their content. The result was that Sony, who invented the walkman, couldn't make a usable iPod competitor.

    They should sell Sir Paul his stuff back and go back to being tech wizards.

    And maybe Apple should look at Sony before they go down the same path.

    Full disclosure: I own stock in both.

    1. Re:Good Idea! by Dogtanian · · Score: 2

      I've commented before on how MiniDisc *could* have pre-empted MP3 and the portable audio revolution if it had been used to its full potential rather than intentionally hobbled in order to protect Sony's content business.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    2. Re:Good Idea! by ukoda · · Score: 1

      If I had mod points I would mod this as it exactly what I think happen. Sony was always the company to buy electronic devices from if you could afford it, until they became a media company. Then they stopped caring what the customers actually wanted and later became downright hostile to their customers.

      Dumping the media section would free the electronics division to refocus on making stuff consumers really want, but I think they will never be able to recovery their lost reputation. The damage done by the media execs is repairable and should be a lesson for all hardware companies.

      Interestingly Apple are different. People brought Sony hardware because it was technically advanced. Some people like me by some Apple products for the same reason but most Apple buyer buy Apple for trendy reasons. I will buy a Mac Book because it is still open but the iPhone is locked down by their media/apps divisions and I will not buy one as technically it is inferior to the Nexus device I use. However the bulk of iPhone buyers don't care about the lagging and locked iPhones, they are a status symbol for them. By marketing that way the Apple hardware has not been killed the same way the Sony hardware was.

    3. Re:Good Idea! by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      The result was that Sony, who invented the walkman, couldn't make a usable iPod competitor.

      I sometimes thought that Sony's best competitor to the iPod in the mid 2000's was the PSP. It sure wasn't their walkman phones. A family member had the W350 It was a cheap feeling thing with a mediocre UI. Even my Razr V3xx was a better music player.

    4. Re:Good Idea! by HiThere · · Score: 2

      They have NOT re-established their reputation as a reputable technology company. That's going to take a LOT of work. Possibly as much as it took to build it in the first place, and they not only destroyed something that had taken decades to build over the course of a year, they repeated the offense multiple times by doing things like hiring people to put root kits into their devices, and then offering a "repair" that left you vulnerable to trivial attacks.

      It's going to take lots of time and effort to repair their reputation. One good device that isn't yet known to be backdoored isn't going to do the job.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    5. Re:Good Idea! by swb · · Score: 1

      Their minidisc stuff wasn't bad in the late 1990s. It had some DRM limits if you recorded digitally, but I don't remember it being a pain and it was way better than cassette for general reliability and analog recording.

      I think they managed to screw this up when MP3 came along, bringing in more DRM and limitations while trying to stay relevant.

    6. Re:Good Idea! by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      Being tech wizards means nothing if they can't get the various pre-recorded media industries to support their tech.

      I seem to recall Sony bought what became Sony Music after the music industry's campaign against the Digital Audio Tape (DAT) effectively killed the format for consumer use (and made it a multi-billion dollar loss for Sony).

      Stinging from the demise of BetaMax, and DAT, the execs at Sony did the math, and realized they could buy media corporations outright, fire a few of the the curmudgeons, and force them to support Sony formats -- and it'd still be cheaper than what they lost on DAT. A few years later, Sony released the MiniDisc over the Digital Compact Cassette.
      As it was supported by Sony Music's offerings, the MiniDisc had a respectable amount of pre-recorded albums for sale.

      It simply didn't gain enough traction before CD-R's effectively killed the MiniDisc.

      Sony also used its record label status to help push the Super Audio CD over DVD Audio a few years later.

      In the Movie Business, Sony bought movie studios force a level of industry support for SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) in theatres instead of Dolby Surround and DTS.

      Sony also used its studio clout to push industry adoption of the DVD, and Blu-Ray a decade later.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    7. Re:Good Idea! by sl3xd · · Score: 1

      You have the order wrong...

      Sony bought the media businesses to force at least one major player in the respective industries to support their proprietary formats.

      Long before MiniDisc was DAT, which was delayed in the US by something like 5 years because the RIAA threw a congressional-level hissy fit about home recording killing the industry. NONE of the major labels released music on the DAT because because they felt so threatened by perfect digital copies.

      Sony didn't push for copy protection at the time - rather the opposite, arguing that it was unnecessary. The RIAA shitfest that followed lead to the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, which enshrined copy protection in US federal law.

      By then, DAT was deader than a can of SPAM, and Sony lost millions of R&D money, and probably billions in sales of consumer devices, had DAT not been snuffed in the cradle by the RIAA.

      Still stinging from BetaMax and DAT, Sony decided "Never again", bought BMG music, fired the curmudgeons at BMG who helped kill the DAT, and released the MiniDisc with full support by Sony BMG Music -- as well as the Audio Home Recording Act's required Serial Copy Management System

      It wasn't until a decade later, in the heyday of the CD-R and MP3 that Sony tried to enforce copy protection on CD's - and even then, it can be argued it was to promote Sony's proprietary formats (MiniDisc and ATRAC) over open standards like MP3. It took a ridiculously long time before Sony would support any standardized audio format.

      --
      -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    8. Re:Good Idea! by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      Interesting additional perspective, thank you.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
  3. Yet another Disney subsidiary? by zarmanto · · Score: 1

    Somehow, I wouldn't be surprised to see Disney throw their hat in the ring. They've been buying up content properties left and right, lately.

    (Not honestly sure whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing, though...)

    1. Re:Yet another Disney subsidiary? by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      Somehow, I wouldn't be surprised to see Disney throw their hat in the ring. They've been buying up content properties left and right, lately.

      (Not honestly sure whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing, though...)

      They probably wouldn't mind getting the Sony licensed Marvel properties back either.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    2. Re:Yet another Disney subsidiary? by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      If they did, Disney would have Spider-Man fully in the MCU (not just some cross-promotion deal that lets them use each other's characters for now).

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    3. Re:Yet another Disney subsidiary? by SQLGuru · · Score: 1

      Even if they bought Sony TV/Movie and turned around and sold everything except the Marvel properties, I'd be fine with that purchase.

  4. Sonyâ by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Sonyâ - how is that pronounced? SonyAY? SonyAH?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Sonyâ by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      ... or rather, âoefind smart quotes, replace with dumb quotesâ.

      Better idea: find dumb editor, replace with smart editor.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  5. So. by rmdingler · · Score: 1
    Even with the Marvel franchises, Sony films heyday seems to have come and gone.

    Much like some of their other enterprises.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  6. Movies are down, TV is up by TheSync · · Score: 1

    Sony Pictures reported an operating loss of $64.9 million on revenues of $3.28 billion for the six months ending in September.

    But television program production is doing OK, Sony now sees the combined movie and TV unit generating about $8 billion in revenue for the fiscal year, with an operating profit of $25 million.

  7. By the Raw Numbers, It May Be Worth a Shot by Kunedog · · Score: 1

    They "think they have a franchise" based on an Emoji Movie. Jesus.

    Sounds goofy to me too, but Angry Birds was a smash hit for them (definitely their biggest of the year):
    http://www.boxofficemojo.com/y...

    $349.8M The Angry Birds Movie
    $239.1M Passengers (2016)
    $229.1M Ghostbusters (2016)
    $220.0M Inferno
    $160.4M The Magnificent Seven (2016)
    $140.7M Sausage Party
    $119.1M The Shallows
    $109.9M The 5th Wave
    $46.1M Risen
    $25.2M The Brothers Grimsby

    It clobbered Ghostbusters (and Passengers) with less than half the budget (maybe worse after you account for marketing). The execs may not understand how horribly Ghostbusters was marketed (by openly trashing the fans), so they may well come to the conclusion (because they do understand profit loud and clear) that silly interweb franchises are way more valuable to them than beloved classic franchises (or original stories).

  8. Good! by MpVpRb · · Score: 1

    Sony was the world tech leader until they decided to get into the movie/record biz

    Then, they were crippled by powerful people who valued fashion and power over tech

    Source.. I worked for one of Sony's awful companies..we built the Metreon