Sony to sell $1.9bn of conv bonds, stock down 10% in early trading.

[yanamaster]

theprof00 said:

Dodece said:
Talk about the facade starting to crumble. It seems that reality is finally starting to overcome partisan bickering. Had something like this been posted six months ago this thread would have been awash in spin, and recriminations would have been made against the original poster as if they had willed the news into existence. That said there is still a little too much softening going on in regards to the truth.

I for one am tired of hearing about how Sony is or was a great company. You don't eat your way to greatness. That is something that comes from within. The reality is pretty simple to understand conglomerates don't have a soul. They just eat whatever looks good to them. Which brings me to my next point Sony isn't great, because it is still trying to eat its way to greatness. Instead of trying to win from within. It is just trying to buy any company it thinks might have greatness within itself.

All Sony is doing right now is binging and purging, and that is in no way whatsoever making the right move. They are gambling on beating the market to that next big thing. Even more damning then that they aren't even being at all particular about what they are picking up. Like a Stoner on a Midnight Munchie run. The rhyme or reason in what they are buying makes no sense, because none of what they are buying particularly works together. Which brings me to my next point.

Sony didn't just start behaving like this recently. They have been restructuring for five years now. Wait did I just say restructuring. Surely they haven't been doing that for five years. After all restructuring is the panacea that is going to cure Sony. Well I hate to be a downer about this, but the medicine hasn't worked yet. To be fair thought Sony hasn't been following the directions on the bottle. When a company restructures it should downsize staff, sell off assets, condense divisions, and cut product lines. While it is true that Sony has done that it has also done things that are just plain counter indicated.

Which brings me back to my original point. Sony isn't a great company, because they haven't learned that business as usual is what was killing them. When you go on a diet you can't go out buying junk food. It is almost like some kind of bent obsessive compulsive disorder entirely divorced from reality. Like a modern day Hearst. There is no real good logic why anyone should be out buying new stuff when the problem is everything else they have is broken. You need to fix your house before you go out to buy new furniture.

The point is this until Sony stops buying shit they are never going to get out of the hole they are digging. The money Sony has blown on acquisitions, incurring debts, and adhering to failed product lines. Is nothing less then gambling on a long shot. There is a time for taking risks, but there is also a time for prudence. Had Sony tried the latter for the past five years they just might be profitable today.

It's fitting that your open letter to "fanboys" is puncutated by an xboxlive signature.

But the guy is correct in general.

Of course restructuring a company doesn't mean that you shouldn't spend money on something but nevertheless you have to spend this money reasonably. Buying Gakai might be a great long term investment, but how does it help in the short-to-middle term?

I'm glad that some people talk about the probable profit the Sony might have for this fiscal year, but who's to say that they will manage to continue this trend later? Actually i find it hard to believe that they might profit at all within the next 12 months. The reason is of course that Sony hasn't cut off the main cancer of the company and with the amount of down scaling that they should head towards  i sometimes wonder why won't they just drop the damn tv division.

Keeping that division up and running seems more like a vanity project from Sony than an actual business.

in addition, I get the sinking feeling that the profit that Sony believes in achieving is based on a sudden explosion in the western economies accompanied by a sudden drop in Yen value.

Honestly, that won't happen until the US and UE get their act straight with their debts. And it's anyones guess as to when that will happen.