It is a interesting supposition that I never gave much consideration to. While it is true that Sony took out over seven hundred million dollars in loans at a really good rate to fund the manufacturing of the PS3. I haven't felt or thought that way about Sony in quite some time. I suppose with their current credit rating, and their recent issuing of those convertible bonds. That the company was neither in a good position to get anything close to a decent interest rate, or to get the kind of money they would need.
So I just naturally assumed that they weren't going to sell at a loss, and if they did they would instead dip into their cash reserves. Rather then take on a even greater debt burden. Have you given any thought to the idea that Sony doesn't actually need to seek outside investment to fund the initial production run. The sale of the buildings, and the issuance of the convertible bonds brought in a great deal of money, and not all of it has been accounted for yet.
It might not be seven hundred million, but a few hundred million would be more then enough to make a initial production run without having to count on getting outside investment. Granted that Sony wasn't silly, and if they were being silly chances are they wouldn't have gotten the outside investment anyway. I really have a hard time seeing Sony opting into a loss lead strategy. Especially when they need every division that can show a turnaround to do exactly that to rebuild investor confidence.
I really think it is is important for Sony to not only show a profit for this past year, but to show a profit for next year too. That will not be dependent on the sale of major assets to make it happen. If they end up showing a loss for this year it will be doubly important to make a really unambiguous profit next year. Both mean that the console division cannot be loss leading new console or not.
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