Last I checked, they had around $7 billion in cash. They have much more than that in other assets (office buildings, factories, intellectual property etc.), but the value of these assets might turn out to be smaller than they think if they sell them during the current economic conditions.

Anyway, $7 billion in cash doesn't last for very long in a company with their dimension if their small profit margins turn into small/medium loss margins. Finding creditors is not easy either, since they already have more than $10 billion in debt (checked in google finance). Who in their right mind will lend Sony a lot of money before they prove they can restructure their company for profitability?

equity is not an asset

But besides the value, which is true, the assets must be financed, so it will be hard to sell them. And the 7 billion is not cash, it is bound to the mentioned assets. And you are right with declining equity and not a positive view for the coming years, it will be very hard to find creditors or you have to pay a whole lot of interest

Nintendo only has 3700 employees. Sony has 180,000.

In addition, Nintendo has one of the highest profit per employee ratios in the world of all companies not just video games companies.

Doomed is a really gloom way to put it. The company employs close to 180,000 people so what we have seen so far is a 5% drop. Sony has survived through every other economic downturn since 194_. Things will hopefully get better when the world economy comes out of this slump.

I think we're on a different page. I was replying to the first paragraph of your post, not the second.

$7 billion is cash, it's on their balance sheet.

 Goldman Sachs had the highest profit/employee in 2007, they lost 2.1 billion $ last quarter.

Things can change fast...