

Kazuo "Kaz" Hirai, President and CEO of Sony Corporation
Sony Entertainment spinoff likely





Hirai didn't offer any timeframe for the discussions.


Sources: Reuters, Wall Street Journal

Comments     Threshold


By BRB29 on 5/22/2013 8:45:18 AM , Rating: 4
Why would you sell your strongest division that's making profit and keeping you afloat.

Sony should start making its own stuff instead of just buying it and slapping their name on it.

Their NEX camera is great because they developed it themselves.

RE: Why?
By danjw1 on 5/22/2013 8:58:20 AM , Rating: 2
Spin off, not sell off. The keep a significant stake and make it a separate company. They may even distribute stock to current stockholders.

RE: Why?
By BRB29 on 5/22/2013 9:09:37 AM , Rating: 1
If they spin it off, they can't distribute stock to current shareholders. Spin off is selling because they are receiving something. If they keep majority share then they could have control. Control doesn't mean Sony Ent. will be able to pass its profits to Sony though.

That's not a good long term solution though. The only time it's good is when that spin off entity directly do work for the main branch. That way, their revenue and expense are tied together. One company's expense is the other's revenue. Expense is tax deductible so it benefits them. Spin off is also for liability reasons. It is also used to make their financial statements look better.

You usually only to spin off the underperforming divisions for all those reasons. It doesn't make sense take away your star.

RE: Why?
By charleski on 5/23/2013 9:18:14 AM , Rating: 2
If they keep a majority+ share of the spin-off, the subsidiary merely passes its profits to its own shareholders, which is mostly Sony....

There are lots of reasons to manipulate resources in this way. One obvious one is to allow the more successful entertainment business to get better rates for its financing, but there are a host of legal, tax and accounting reasons which might apply.

