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Forums - Gaming - Seriously Why Doesn't Microsoft Just Buy Sony?

Captain_Tom on 09 January 2014

LOL, it is amazing how little some people understand economics...



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Jexy on 09 January 2014
lt_dan_27 said:
 

First off, let me state that sony isn't going bankrupt. That article you looked at was just garbage to generate hits, like most things are. 
Sony is currently valued at 28.523 billion, which is up since 2012. The company is in better shape since Kaz has taken over. 
Now, Microsoft currently is valued far higher, at 78.94billion. But think about this. To buy Sony, MS would have to sell off a third of ALL its assets. And the funny thing about it is their gaming division would probably  be one of the first assets to sell off. Also, if they went through all liquid assets, they themselves would go into banktrupcy. 


Not sure what you're talking about at all.  Sony is currently valued at 18.7 billion and has a ton of debt.  Microsoft is around 300 billion with enough cash to buy Sony many times over.  MS wouldn't have to sell anything.  They are litterally sitting on a mound of cash just like Apple is.  In fact, the last part of your comment is ridiculous as well, since Sony isn't bankrupt, they are in debt, and don't have any cash by comparison. 

Not sure if I just responded to trolling by accident, haven't been here in a while. 

What everyone is missing, is what prominent Sony shareholders have been asking for, for Sony to spin off their division that holds Playstation, as it's basically their best division.  That way, Sony would make a bunch of money, but should a company like Microsoft want it, it would come with far less debt than the rest of Sony, be marginally profitable (at least starting right now), could buy it for a lot less than Sony's total market cap... if Microsoft wanted to.  But they don't. Microsoft, if they even wanted to do such a thing, would be better waiting for Nintendo to drop (assuming the Japanese would let you buy a company there) and take over their properties, like how Nintendo did with Sega, etc.



BOOM!  FACE KICK!

shloob on 09 January 2014

The only reason Microsoft even made the xbox was too stick it to sony. They wanted to partner with Sony on a few things and Sony turned them down. So Microsoft said if that's how its gonna be we will simply make our own console just to take away some of your market share. Not too different then what happened between Sony and Nintendo, only they actually came to terms.



nanarchy on 09 January 2014
shloob said:
The only reason Microsoft even made the xbox was too stick it to sony. They wanted to partner with Sony on a few things and Sony turned them down. So Microsoft said if that's how its gonna be we will simply make our own console just to take away some of your market share. Not too different then what happened between Sony and Nintendo, only they actually came to terms.


bullshit. It had nothing to do with that. MS was protecting its desktop and media market they don't invest billions of dollars to "stick" it to anyone, they do it to either expand or secure marketshare (i.e. business reasons). There was a risk back before Xbox came out that the living room would become the center of everyones computing experience and the desktop in the home may become secondary or irrelevant and MS wanted to ensure if that happened that they were in a position to capitalise on it. As it turns out the risk ended up being more in the tablet and smartphone market.



Seece on 09 January 2014
Shinobi-san said:
Seece said:
enditall727 said:
Seece said:

Aple would have to want Sony. Why would Sony chose Apple over Microsoft? Don't act like they're rivals (MS and Sny) because really, they're not. Actually MS and Sony are more a match than Apple and Sony.

But this will never happen. If wanted to win the console war by spending $18b all they would have to do is buy taketwo, EA, Activision ect ect and end it.


Because Apple is still new to the gaming scene and MS has already proven that it is pretty much a no-sell in japan. 

 

And Apple would be a fresh and clean start. Sony would probably have more flexibity with Apple than MS.

 

but yea.. This wouldn't happen either way

 

And i dont think Activision, EA and Taketwo would let themselves be bought either

Other than poisioing themselves there isn't a whole lot they can do, they're not private companies.

There are multiple ways that a company can protect itself from hostile takeovers. One of the more extreme ways would be to poison themselves...but there are other ways.

Not only that but there are also preventative methods that a company can implement to prevent hostile takeovers.

So theres actually a lot of things that companies can do. And realistically MS probably wont be able to buy EA, Activision, Taketwo or Sony even if they wanted to.

Such as?

Activision were looking for a buyer not long ago. Some of them would be more/less resistant than others. I doubt we know what would happen as like I and others have said, it's a very unlikely scenario.



 

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nanarchy on 09 January 2014
Seece said:
Shinobi-san said:
Seece said:
enditall727 said:
Seece said:

Aple would have to want Sony. Why would Sony chose Apple over Microsoft? Don't act like they're rivals (MS and Sny) because really, they're not. Actually MS and Sony are more a match than Apple and Sony.

But this will never happen. If wanted to win the console war by spending $18b all they would have to do is buy taketwo, EA, Activision ect ect and end it.


Because Apple is still new to the gaming scene and MS has already proven that it is pretty much a no-sell in japan. 

 

And Apple would be a fresh and clean start. Sony would probably have more flexibity with Apple than MS.

 

but yea.. This wouldn't happen either way

 

And i dont think Activision, EA and Taketwo would let themselves be bought either

Other than poisioing themselves there isn't a whole lot they can do, they're not private companies.

There are multiple ways that a company can protect itself from hostile takeovers. One of the more extreme ways would be to poison themselves...but there are other ways.

Not only that but there are also preventative methods that a company can implement to prevent hostile takeovers.

So theres actually a lot of things that companies can do. And realistically MS probably wont be able to buy EA, Activision, Taketwo or Sony even if they wanted to.

Such as?

Activision were looking for a buyer not long ago. Some of them would be more/less resistant than others. I doubt we know what would happen as like I and others have said, it's a very unlikely scenario.

One common tactic is what's called the "poison pill". The company enters into licensing and contract agreements which have hugely negative outcomes should the company be bought out. I used to work for a company that used such a method to protect itself from its most hated rival, basically the agreements for all software licensing ensured that should ownership of the company change that the licensee would automatically gain perpetual licenses to all products they currently were paying for. It was a great selling point for the company and made the value of the company for a hostile bidder far less as suddenly a whole heap of licensing money would disappear.



thismeintiel on 10 January 2014
Jexy said:
lt_dan_27 said:
 

First off, let me state that sony isn't going bankrupt. That article you looked at was just garbage to generate hits, like most things are. 
Sony is currently valued at 28.523 billion, which is up since 2012. The company is in better shape since Kaz has taken over. 
Now, Microsoft currently is valued far higher, at 78.94billion. But think about this. To buy Sony, MS would have to sell off a third of ALL its assets. And the funny thing about it is their gaming division would probably  be one of the first assets to sell off. Also, if they went through all liquid assets, they themselves would go into banktrupcy. 


Not sure what you're talking about at all.  Sony is currently valued at 18.7 billion and has a ton of debt.  Microsoft is around 300 billion with enough cash to buy Sony many times over.  MS wouldn't have to sell anything.  They are litterally sitting on a mound of cash just like Apple is.  In fact, the last part of your comment is ridiculous as well, since Sony isn't bankrupt, they are in debt, and don't have any cash by comparison. 

Not sure if I just responded to trolling by accident, haven't been here in a while. 

What everyone is missing, is what prominent Sony shareholders have been asking for, for Sony to spin off their division that holds Playstation, as it's basically their best division.  That way, Sony would make a bunch of money, but should a company like Microsoft want it, it would come with far less debt than the rest of Sony, be marginally profitable (at least starting right now), could buy it for a lot less than Sony's total market cap... if Microsoft wanted to.  But they don't. Microsoft, if they even wanted to do such a thing, would be better waiting for Nintendo to drop (assuming the Japanese would let you buy a company there) and take over their properties, like how Nintendo did with Sega, etc.

No, that was one guy, Loeb, who probably is no longer invested in Sony.  He just wanted it to happen so he could make a quick buck off of the stock increasing due to the spin off.  When it was apparent it wasn't going to happen, I bet he dumped the stock he did have.



 

Juma009 on 10 January 2014

Didnt a recent candidate for Microsoft CEO position had a plan that involved Microsoft getting rid of the whole Xbox branch?



lt_dan_27 on 10 January 2014
Jexy said:
lt_dan_27 said:
 

First off, let me state that sony isn't going bankrupt. That article you looked at was just garbage to generate hits, like most things are. 
Sony is currently valued at 28.523 billion, which is up since 2012. The company is in better shape since Kaz has taken over. 
Now, Microsoft currently is valued far higher, at 78.94billion. But think about this. To buy Sony, MS would have to sell off a third of ALL its assets. And the funny thing about it is their gaming division would probably  be one of the first assets to sell off. Also, if they went through all liquid assets, they themselves would go into banktrupcy. 


Not sure what you're talking about at all.  Sony is currently valued at 18.7 billion and has a ton of debt.  Microsoft is around 300 billion with enough cash to buy Sony many times over.  MS wouldn't have to sell anything.  They are litterally sitting on a mound of cash just like Apple is.  In fact, the last part of your comment is ridiculous as well, since Sony isn't bankrupt, they are in debt, and don't have any cash by comparison. 

Not sure if I just responded to trolling by accident, haven't been here in a while. 

What everyone is missing, is what prominent Sony shareholders have been asking for, for Sony to spin off their division that holds Playstation, as it's basically their best division.  That way, Sony would make a bunch of money, but should a company like Microsoft want it, it would come with far less debt than the rest of Sony, be marginally profitable (at least starting right now), could buy it for a lot less than Sony's total market cap... if Microsoft wanted to.  But they don't. Microsoft, if they even wanted to do such a thing, would be better waiting for Nintendo to drop (assuming the Japanese would let you buy a company there) and take over their properties, like how Nintendo did with Sega, etc.

sony's total equity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony the source is sony's official finincial statement of the year of 2013. 

And the same comes from MS. 

I was saying "would go into bankruptcy as well" because the OP says that sony is going to go into bankruptcy. If ms lost all liquid assets, it wouldn't be able to pay its bills. That's all I was saying. It also isn't true that playstation is the most profitable business. Maybe it is in the electronics division. But they've also got camera's which I believe are profitable. But their most profitable business, is, wait for it, insurance. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/business/global/sonys-bread-and-butter-its-not-electronics.html?_r=0

"... it so happens that Sony's most successful business is insurance."



nanarchy on 10 January 2014
lt_dan_27 said:
Jexy said:
lt_dan_27 said:
 

First off, let me state that sony isn't going bankrupt. That article you looked at was just garbage to generate hits, like most things are. 
Sony is currently valued at 28.523 billion, which is up since 2012. The company is in better shape since Kaz has taken over. 
Now, Microsoft currently is valued far higher, at 78.94billion. But think about this. To buy Sony, MS would have to sell off a third of ALL its assets. And the funny thing about it is their gaming division would probably  be one of the first assets to sell off. Also, if they went through all liquid assets, they themselves would go into banktrupcy. 


Not sure what you're talking about at all.  Sony is currently valued at 18.7 billion and has a ton of debt.  Microsoft is around 300 billion with enough cash to buy Sony many times over.  MS wouldn't have to sell anything.  They are litterally sitting on a mound of cash just like Apple is.  In fact, the last part of your comment is ridiculous as well, since Sony isn't bankrupt, they are in debt, and don't have any cash by comparison. 

Not sure if I just responded to trolling by accident, haven't been here in a while. 

What everyone is missing, is what prominent Sony shareholders have been asking for, for Sony to spin off their division that holds Playstation, as it's basically their best division.  That way, Sony would make a bunch of money, but should a company like Microsoft want it, it would come with far less debt than the rest of Sony, be marginally profitable (at least starting right now), could buy it for a lot less than Sony's total market cap... if Microsoft wanted to.  But they don't. Microsoft, if they even wanted to do such a thing, would be better waiting for Nintendo to drop (assuming the Japanese would let you buy a company there) and take over their properties, like how Nintendo did with Sega, etc.

sony's total equity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony the source is sony's official finincial statement of the year of 2013. 

And the same comes from MS. 

I was saying "would go into bankruptcy as well" because the OP says that sony is going to go into bankruptcy. If ms lost all liquid assets, it wouldn't be able to pay its bills. That's all I was saying. It also isn't true that playstation is the most profitable business. Maybe it is in the electronics division. But they've also got camera's which I believe are profitable. But their most profitable business, is, wait for it, insurance. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/business/global/sonys-bread-and-butter-its-not-electronics.html?_r=0

"... it so happens that Sony's most successful business is insurance."


not sure where you are getting your numbers from but they are out of date/incorrect. You can look up the current figures on any exchange. To even suggest MS have a valuation of less than 4 years of profit is insane. You would have to go back over 15 years to get a sub 100 billion valuation on MS. Last time I saw official figures MS had more than $50 billion in cash alone.

 

http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-price?symbol=SNE&ocid=qbeb

http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-price?symbol=MSFT&ocid=rq