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Forums - Sales Discussion - Forbes: Sony is Screwed...Is this article accurate?

megaman79 on 13 January 2009

If i was a sony fan, which i am but for the tv's, walkman's and aibo, i would not be angry at any other posters for pointing out the fact that Sony lied to its shareholders for years and claimed their problems were not as bad as is now being reported.



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

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CMoney on 13 January 2009

@Groucho - actually dvd really took off sales wise in years 3, 4, and 5. If blu-ray is still selling similar to dvd during that time then I will agree with you. But given the worldwide depression, blu-ray appears to be headed for niche product status.

Secondly, why bring up blu-ray? The only reason I can see bringing it up is because it helped put sony in this financial quagmire. Furthermore, you saying bluray is growing by "leaps and bounds" doesn't change the fact that sony is going to report a HUGE billion dollar yearly loss.

Please stay on topic in the future. There are plenty of "bluray is amazing" threads you can defend sony in.



TheBigFatJ on 13 January 2009
nolpuk said:

So the rumors about sony to close the gaming division is likely to be true???

 

I haven't read any rumors that Sony is closing its gaming division, but the following would have to be true for them to consider it:

(1) they'd have to not have any profitable products.  The PS2 and PSP are profitable, so they'll likely keep the gaming division going.

(2) the gaming division would have to be one of the worst offenders

(3) the gaming division would have to have a poorer long term outlook than other divisions that were bad.

The more likely, but still unlikely, case is that they'd jettison the PS3 instead of the gaming division.  This would only likely be a consideration if:

(1) They already considered not developing a PS4 since you cannot abandon your developers and customers and then expect them to come back.

(2) The PS3 is not going to attain profitability anytime soon and the PS3 is one of its biggest losers.

The fact that the games division could keep going without the PS3 is irrelevant: like a bee losing its stinger, the games division would eventually die without the PS3 as there would be no way forward.  It would be very costly to Sony's future.

@Groucho - actually dvd really took off sales wise in years 3, 4, and 5. If blu-ray is still selling similar to dvd during that time then I will agree with you. But given the worldwide depression, blu-ray appears to be headed for niche product status.

I researched this recently. DVD reached 50% marketshare in 2001 (in terms of revenue).  If BD reaches 50% in 2010, they'd be about equal.

It won't.



largedarryl on 13 January 2009
Groucho said:

This article stinks of the "Blu-Ray is dead!" yammerings of recent history, followed by the "Oops, Blu-Ray is growing by leaps and bounds!" articles of even more recent history.  If you were trying to get the public to dump Sony stock for cheeps, pandering this kind of BS to financial news would be exactly the way to do it... right before the earnings announcements.

For some reason this seems illegal and highly unlikely (as are most conspiracy theories).

 

Does anyone actually know much about the primary stock holders of Sony?  Maybe some info on who the primary stock holders are may shed some light on what could potentially happen to the company.

 



CMoney on 13 January 2009

@Groucho - It is mind-boggling to me that sony has any inverstors left at all. Especially when you consider how they've been lied to time after time by sony executives.

The article clearly states "Seven out of eight years, Sony has failed to meet its own initial operating profit forecast. This is probably the worst track record amongst most major exporters," Goyal said.

This type of shareholder deceit is OUTRAGEOUS and potentially a criminal act.



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largedarryl on 13 January 2009
CMoney said:
@Groucho - It is mind-boggling to me that sony has any inverstors left at all. Especially when you consider how they've been lied to time after time by sony executives.

The article clearly states "Seven out of eight years, Sony has failed to meet its own initial operating profit forecast. This is probably the worst track record amongst most major exporters," Goyal said.

This type of shareholder deceit is OUTRAGEOUS and potentially a criminal act.

I would actually agree with you about the illegal part.  Why haven't the share holders attempted to take legal action or simply replacing the CEO?  This brings me back to my question about who are the major shareholders in Sony?

 



NJ5 on 13 January 2009
Groucho said:

This article stinks of the "Blu-Ray is dead!" yammerings of recent history, followed by the "Oops, Blu-Ray is growing by leaps and bounds!" articles of even more recent history. If you were trying to get the public to dump Sony stock for cheeps, pandering this kind of BS to financial news would be exactly the way to do it... right before the earnings announcements.

Shall I go with the opinion of dozens of analysts from renowned institutions which put Sony in a similar situation to that of its Japanese counterparts, or with an unfounded conspiracy theory instead?

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

Smashed on 13 January 2009

Oh, here we go.. again.



NJ5 on 13 January 2009
largedarryl said:
CMoney said:
@Groucho - It is mind-boggling to me that sony has any inverstors left at all. Especially when you consider how they've been lied to time after time by sony executives.

The article clearly states "Seven out of eight years, Sony has failed to meet its own initial operating profit forecast. This is probably the worst track record amongst most major exporters," Goyal said.

This type of shareholder deceit is OUTRAGEOUS and potentially a criminal act.

I would actually agree with you about the illegal part. Why haven't the share holders attempted to take legal action or simply replacing the CEO? This brings me back to my question about who are the major shareholders in Sony?

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=SNE

It seems the stock is quite fragmented, and according to this, major holders don't hold that big a percentage of the shares.

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

pearljammer on 13 January 2009
NJ5 said:
Actually vgchartz has existed for 2.5 years. And yes, there was a lot of bashing when the $1 billion RROD charge hit MS.

Hell, this still pops up in threads every now and then. I think it's safe to assume that this news is much more dire for Sony than RROD has ever been for MS.