Alright, I will openly admit I am not highly informed in this regard, but I have been wondering something and just need some good opinions here.

As we all know we are in a recession but I have heard that in times like this the entertainment industry usually does fine. I have heard Hollywood may not be recession proof this time but Dark Knight is breaking records.

Anyways, since Sony lives and breathes in the entertainment industry they should end up fine right? I have been wondering this and with many people talking about recession hurting Sony now and all else, going by what does good in these economical times shouldn't it not really hurt them too much?

Sorry if I either make absolutely no sense or am way off the mark. As I said, I am only looking for some knowledge here.

whats really hurting Sony is the strong Yen imo, probably even more so than peoples willingness to purchase

Sony's cash cow is currently the electronics division (and I use the term cash cow loosely as their profit margins are very thin).

Consumer electronics sales are not doing good during this holiday season due to the recession:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081210/tec_techbit_gadget_shopping.html?.v=2

The entertainment industry is not that big for Sony, not on a consistent basis at least. They have some movie hits, and the situation could improve there (or not, as movie tickets are more expensive than in previous recessions, and now there's games to compete with).

PS: Then there's what Spankey just said, which is hurting them a lot now (along with most other Japanese exporters).

Yeah as NJ5 said, Sony's greatest money maker is in fact not in the entertainment division so they are most certainly not recession-proof.

However they aren't about to go under or anything like that.. They'll just have a rough couple of years..

Yes, during times of economic crisis, most portions of the entertainment industry do well, but only if they provide a lot of entertainment per dollar.

Best example is during the great depression, radios sold incredibly well - because once you've bought it, unlimited free entertainment.

And that is why video games do incredibly well

Video games (in Australia) are about 4 times the price of dvds, and yet a good game can give you 50-100 hours playtime. A good movie can be watched a few times, say 5 hours playtime. That represents incredible value.

However, Sony is (this isn't a criticism, the same is true of Apple, whom I love) not a company that provides cheap entertainment. Their products are generally aimed at the upmarket, and carry high price tags. In todays economic climate, people would prefer a $200 dollar console that can play most the games a PS3 can, would prefer to buy a cheap laptop rather than a VAIO. So Sony is one of the more vulnerable electronics companies (but then again, Apple is doing well even in its computer business despite aiming upmarket in that field)

Both this.

and what NJ5 said.

Thanks guys.

I was thinking on the lines of what Spanky said, I always thought the strong Yen was hurting them most of all.

Just to put another question out there.

Anyone know where I could buy stock without the need of a broker? Any way to just do it myself without costing me a fortune?

No, I am not buying Sony stock, lol.

@Euphoria14: You should search for online brokers. I don't know how it works in the USA though.

Unless you're going to buy thousands of dollars in stocks, don't bother unless you find a broker with very low fees. The fees alone can eat a lot of your profits if you're only buying a few shares (and the capital gains tax will eat a lot of the rest).

PS: This is personal advice, and the usual disclaimers apply, but I wouldn't invest in the stock market right now. I think things will get worse across the board early next year. The only stocks I'm in right now are SDS (which goes up when the market goes down) and oil (which I expect to recover at some point in the medium/long term).

There are plenty of discount brokers like TD Ameritrade that are inexpensive. It's probably a good thing to start small and learn how to do these things. Investing a lot to begin may be more efficient, however it also carries greater risk.