Sony's $100 billion lost decade support "break up"

[joeorc]

But there is hope. "Mr Loeb's proposal certainly came out of the blue, so I am not surprised that there is no immediate response," says Gerhard Fasol of Tokyo-based Eurotechnology. "And Mr Hirai did meet Mr Loeb which was not always the case in the past." However Mr. Fasol is unsure just how far Mr. Loeb may get. "He does not have that much power over Sony. After all they are not like Sharp ," he says. "They don't have the same problems as Sharp so they don't have a gun to their heads." The hope must be that like the the other Bravia that is plaguing Sony -- its eight years of loss-making TVs -- the foreign meddlers might just disappear.

Struggles with foreign shareholders have nearly always turned to favor Japanese companies, after all. Just six years ago when Steel Partners launched a tender offer for the 90% of a famous Japanese sauce maker, Bull-Dog, the food firm sought a white knight intervention and then a poison pill to save itself from an aggressive takeover bid from the Americans. Finally, Japanese courts voted in favor of the pill.

Analysts here say an increase in more moves like this from foreign firms is further proof that Japanese industries now face a new era of corporate mergers and acquisitions that will more closely resemble deals seen overseas. Until very recently takeover bids were rare in Japan where private equity and hedge funds have been traditionally viewed as corporate vultures. Nor have efforts by overseas investors to wring higher returns from companies found much success in Japan.

Mr Loeb's tactics are less hostile. But historic evidence suggests that Sony and Japan Inc. are unlikely to heed his call, which essentially echoes the lead of the country's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe. His economic policies seem to have done so much to put Japan back on the map recently. Thanks to massive spending by the Bank of Japan, the nation's economy is on the up, though deflation is still the norm and firms are refusing to budge on lack of plans for new investments, according to the latest figures.

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/05/16/break-up-sony-its-harder-than-it-looks/