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Farsala on 13 November 2020
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shikamaru317 said:
PotentHerbs said:
shikamaru317 said:
PotentHerbs said:

In this very thread, another ResetEra "insider" Okabe, teased the possibility of Sony buying Capcom. Apparently he has ties to Capcom, but I'm not sure what kind of leaks he has gotten right before, aside from the recent Price of Persia remake/remaster.

Edit: Well, MaximillionDood, who has some industry sources knows Okabe lol. 

I wouldn't say that is impossible, but it would be quite pricey for Sony. Capcom is public, so they'd have to buy out other stock holders, and stock prices would rise due to the acquisition attempt. Capcom is currently worth $3.35b, price for an acquisition would be over $4b for sure. 

I believe Capcom is worth more than that 3.35b figure. Their market cap should be closer to 5 Billion. 

Although a bit pricey, Playstation is Sony's most important division in terms of profit, and potentially the most profitable business they are in, considering digital revenue and higher game prices. It would be their biggest acquisition since Colombia Pictures. 

$3.35b is what came up on search results, but it does seem to be inaccurate, current market cap is $5.26b, would probably end up costing Sony more than $6b to acquire them since stock prices would increase due to the acquisition attempt. So yeah, not impossible for Sony to acquire them, but pretty unlikely I'd say. Sony has never spent more than $4b on an acquisition in their entire history, though their Columbia Pictures acquisition in 1989 for $3.4b would be equivalent to $7.1b in today's money, and their CBS Records acquisition in 1988 for $2b would be equivalent to $4.4b in today's money. All of their more recent acquisitions have been somewhat cheaper though, EMI Music for $2.3b in 2018, Sony Ericsson for $1.5b in 2012, Ten Sports for $385m in 2016, Gaikai for $380m in 2012, Insomniac for $229m in 2019. Spending $6b on Capcom would be an awfully big play for modern Sony. I'd say it's more likely that they make timed or full exclusivity deals for some of Capcom's upcoming games this generation like Res 4 Remake and Street Fighter 6, rather than straight up acquire them. 

Sony has a bit more cash on hand than usual though. When they bought EMI for $2.3b they had like $16b. Now they have $41b. ($8b more than last quarter) If they were to make an acquisition, now would be the time. The gaming division could especially gain support for the acquisition due to MS recent moves.

A Bluepoint acquisition on the other hand would be very cheap. Insomniac is a pretty big game developer and sold for $229m (275+ employees). Bluepoint only had 90 employees, so Sony could easily buy Bluepoint and another company.