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Forums - General Discussion - Report: Sony Paid $400 million for Warner Bros' Blu-Ray move

damkira on 22 February 2008

The pivotal decision that led to the end of the hi-def DVD format war was the result of an auction between rivals Sony and Toshiba in which both formats sought to buy the exclusive partnership of Warner Home Video- and Sony won by paying around $400 million.

That’s according to a piece published earlier this week in the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper; while sources supplied the paper with the $400 million figure, neither Sony nor Warners’ would confirm it.

In what a Toshiba executive described as the last straw, Warners’ took Blu-ray’s side in early January. After retailers Best Buy, Netflix and Wal*Mart followed its lead, Toshiba threw in the towel earlier this week.

The Globe and Mail also reported that Sony was determined to win the war because it was “haunted by Betamax,” the format it backed that lost out to rival VHS in the late 1980s. Sony won by making partnerships all over the technology and movie industries, years in advance, and by using both its movie studio holdings and its gaming profile to gain an advantage.

http://www.dealerscope.com/story/story.bsp?sid=91894&var=story&publication=Dealerscope&publicationDate=2/22/08&slug=DSEnews3_022208_sonywarner&category=None&section=Unknown

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ssj12 on 22 February 2008

Warner said they wish they were paid by Sony to go exclusive to Blu-ray so this article is incorrect.



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MontanaHatchet on 22 February 2008
Soriku said:
Wow X_X Let's see if Warner pays off. 400 mil is kinda a lot.

400 million a lot of money?

Hoo hoo hoo!

You're so naive! 



 

 

DOATS1 on 22 February 2008



akuma587 on 22 February 2008

Its not like a company can just hide $400 million dollars either. That kind of information can easily come out in quarterly financial reports. Warner has denied this up and down too, and it seems like their decision was the right one because they effectively ended the format war (which is what everyone wanted in the first place). They did it in about a month and a half at that!



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Darc Requiem on 22 February 2008

This has to be a mistake. Sony doesn't pay for exclusivity. Only evil MS does this. MS must of paid the news paper to print this article to denigrate Sony.



madskillz on 22 February 2008

Whether it's revealed or not, $$$ are always the reason for moves like this.



DOATS1 on 22 February 2008

i seriously hope nobody believes this, even if "sony", who DON't EVEN FULLY OWN THE FORMAT, paid money, it's not even going to be half of that. and it's hihgly unlikely that sony paid money to begin with.




skeezer on 22 February 2008

DOubt that , with 400 mil the might as well pay for gt4 exclusivity or GoW



^_^

ecurbj on 22 February 2008

I don't trust or believe this article. Sony would never pay for exclusive material like this. Warner Bros. choose to go Blu-ray on their own.