Sony executives are considering splitting the company's entertainment and electronics divisions, following billionaire Daniel Loeb's proposed initial public offering of its entertainment business. The entertainment arm includes all PlayStation properties, alongside Sony's film and music businesses.

Loeb, with Third Point LLC, owns a 6 percent stake in Sony worth $1.1 billion, and is Sony's biggest investor. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai confirmed that the top brass is considering Loeb's offer, but didn't say when it would come to a decision, Bloomberg reports.

"It's only a start," Hirai said. "It's important that the board will discuss this and come to a decision that represents Sony's stance." Following Loeb's offer yesterday, Sony stock surged 9 percent.

http://www.joystiq.com/

Hmm, I thought they discarded his proposal as soon as he said it... It's a good move short term.

Very interesting stuff. I never realized that a foreign investor could hold this kind of power, I've been following this news since last week and it is fascinating.

The Japanese are typically resistent to such moves, so it'll be interesting if they actually go through with it.

And yeah, it is strongly argued that it's great for investors, but it would be bad for Sony.

The parts of Sony that are struggling might falter without the rest of Sony to rely on.  It also begs the question, what would you do with the gaming division?  Do you split them off from the electronics and keep them with the entertainment group, or do you split the team in two down the line of entertainment (games/software) and electronics?

So the entertainment side includes PS, film, music and the electronicsis all there TVs, cameras, computers and what not? Is the electronics side the one that has been losing money for so long?

Now? Hell no. Sony's gaming division has, well, not done too well up until lately because of the launch of the PS3. A new gen is here, with it, a new launch. PS4 will be better for them financially than the PS3 but the gaming division could again be seeing red for the next few years.

This goes way beyond the PS4 doing well. It's about a foreign investor owning a majority share putting pressure on Sony to make a move, I believe he has reached out to the government of Japan as well as sent out an official letter to Hirai about this, it's a serious thing. It has to do with the ramifications of new laws set up in Japan that could affect the hierarchical structure of Japanese businesses for the better and Loeb is capitalizing on that.

They should split it up, stocks would rise