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

JimmyDanger on 10 January 2014
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Blood_Tears said:
Ahh the Microsoft way...forget innovation and building onto the industry, just buy em and be done with it!


It works for Microsoft. They wouldn't have broken into the industry without Halo.


And Sony wouldn't have broken in without buying Psygnosis/Wipeout.

 

Difference is - MS had been making games for years in one way or another, for the PC OS they'd created - Sony had one little boutiques studio that did a couple of SNES games.



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Normchacho on 10 January 2014

MS can hardly make a case for it's own gaming division and there has been serious talk about ending the Xbox division all together. Why would they try to buy a company that is really only still around because of it's gaming division?



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I bet that on launch the Nintendo Switch will have no built in in-game voice chat. He bets that it will. The winner gets six months of avatar control over the other user.

ICStats on 10 January 2014
toastboy44562 said:

or atleast its game division...

Microsoft Dwarfs Sony and there's a possiblility Sony would go bankrupt. Microsoft Should buy Sony or at least playstation developer rights. Imagine Microsoft having pretty much a gaming monopoly in the US, Europe and having a strong foothold in japan. It would be easy for microsoft to buy sony and the Xbox One could easily sell 100 million -150 million this way. they would not have to cut price as fast either. Would have more first part games, wouldn't have to pay companies for exclusive rights for DLC, wouldn't have to advertise as much. Life would be complete. Why don't they buy sony???


You may remember that United States v. Microsoft Corp. antitrust case.  MS should probably abstain from buying out their main competitor.



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Porcupine_I on 10 January 2014
UltimateUnknown said:
"When you can't beam 'em, buy 'em."

Yeah! Why doesn't Microsoft just beam Sony away?



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

nanarchy on 10 January 2014
ICStats said:
toastboy44562 said:

or atleast its game division...

Microsoft Dwarfs Sony and there's a possiblility Sony would go bankrupt. Microsoft Should buy Sony or at least playstation developer rights. Imagine Microsoft having pretty much a gaming monopoly in the US, Europe and having a strong foothold in japan. It would be easy for microsoft to buy sony and the Xbox One could easily sell 100 million -150 million this way. they would not have to cut price as fast either. Would have more first part games, wouldn't have to pay companies for exclusive rights for DLC, wouldn't have to advertise as much. Life would be complete. Why don't they buy sony???


You may remember that United States v. Microsoft Corp. antitrust case.  MS should probably abstain from buying out their main competitor.

Sony are hardly MS's main competitor, they work with MS in more areas than they compete, if anything they are closer to a partner which would make the buyout even worse as it would pi$$ off many of their other partners. Antitrust wouldn't be an issue at all, though the Japanese government wouldn't allow it to happen even if MS was dumb enough to want such a financial mess.



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S.T.A.G.E. on 10 January 2014
Juma009 said:
Didnt a recent candidate for Microsoft CEO position had a plan that involved Microsoft getting rid of the whole Xbox branch?


A lot of shareholders don't like the Xbox. Steve Balmer and the higher ups didn't care.



S.T.A.G.E. on 10 January 2014
JimmyDanger said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Blood_Tears said:
Ahh the Microsoft way...forget innovation and building onto the industry, just buy em and be done with it!


It works for Microsoft. They wouldn't have broken into the industry without Halo.


And Sony wouldn't have broken in without buying Psygnosis/Wipeout.

 

Difference is - MS had been making games for years in one way or another, for the PC OS they'd created - Sony had one little boutiques studio that did a couple of SNES games.

No. Sony had far more games of value and had cornered all of the third party in general. If you wanted all the games you couldn't find anywhere else bought the original Playstation. Doesn't matter if it was first, second or third party Sony had it all. They essentially killed two birds with one stone. Nintendo and Sega were known for having shaky relationships with third parties and Sony was completely open minded to them. It was a prosperous relationship.



Shinobi-san on 10 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.

Not sure whats happening with each of those companies but if they do not want to sell its likely that they wont. Your post made it seem as if they dont have much of an option either way. If companies want to prevent a hostile takeover they can sell shares to investors that have no voting rights. This way the company owners can retain control of the company. Some companies might also stipulate that any acquisition requires a higher than normal majority...this will inflate the price and they will need to have consensus among the majority of shareholders. To actively fight a takeover companies can spin off their most valuable divisions or assets. the workforce could also threaten a mass exodus..."if you buy us everybody valuablr leaves".

And thats just the ways that im aware of theres probably more. But to say that theres nothing that a company can do is a farcry from reality.



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Ganoncrotch on 10 January 2014
d21lewis said:

lol that did make for a great story line tho... shane o mac running WCW and triple H driving the Tank to their filming. That being said once something appears on WWF/E you know it's fake... the pictured man was envolved in a Storyline where he died a few years ago (he got better since then tho)

As for the OP you think there is a price tag outside the Sony building for X and microsoft has X money so they can walk by and purchase it? Imagine you want to buy a bar of choclate for $5, the bars value is $5 but the shop is on the moon, and the shop isn't actually a shop, it's a kid who's loving owning that bar of choclate, and the kid doesn't know or appreciate what a dollar is, and he hates you and the country you come from.... and the only way you have to contact the people on the moon is via telephone... and they're all deaf.... and your spaceship is a bag of walnuts.

 

- How I'll hate this post if it ever happens >.>



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DirtyP2002 on 10 January 2014

Why should they?

Sony is going the way of the Dodo. Well not that bad, but things are looking pretty bad for them right now. Sony as a whole is in a pretty bad condition. There are 2, maybe 3 divisions that could be a potential investment target.

1. Life insurances. By far Sonys best performing division.
2. Movies
(3. Gaming)

So, if MS wanted to get the no. 1 spot for market share in this gaming market no matter what, they would be there within the next 2 years. Easily.

They spent 7 billion for Skype, 5 billion for Nokia, 1 billion for Yammer in the last 2-3 years. If they invested these kind of numbers for this market, things would be over in a hearbeat. The point is, the risk that they might not see a ROI at all is pretty big, because the market is not that profitable for anyone.



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