Bryank75
Banned
Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社, Sonī kabushiki gaisha, /ˈsoʊni/ SOH-nee, commonly known as Sony and stylized as SONY) is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. The company operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional electronic products, the largest video game console company, the second largest video game publisher, the second largest record company, as well as one of the most comprehensive media companies, being the largest Japanese media conglomerate by size.
Listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (traded since 1970, making it the oldest Japanese company to be listed in an American exchange), and was ranked 122nd on the 2020 Fortune Global 500 list. (Wikipedia, 2021)
Sony is the 4th most valuable company in Japan measured by market cap and could break the top 3 sooner, rather than later if current trends continue. The company is also considered a 'Core' business for Japan and fully protected from any foreign acquisitions.
companiesmarketcap.com
G & NS Strategy
PlayStation is currently in a time of management transition, the successful strategy until now has been based on excellent first party, high quality content, strong support from Japanese developers and publishers such as Square-Enix, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Koei-Tecmo, Sega, Platinum and others. On top of strong relations with TakeTwo, Activision and strategic long term marketing deals, such as with EA's Fifa games.
Going forward, it is likely that management will continue to focus on blockbuster AAA exclusives, however there are many threats facing the business.... aggressive poaching of their highly skilled staff by Microsofts Xbox division, a seeming exodus of staff from Japan Studio, including the creator of Silent Hill, senior staff from Sony Bend have also left and Sony San Diego.
Some comments and moves by the new management have also been very questionable.... Jim Ryan saying that he wanted to lower costs, which could damage game quality and result in talent leaving, eroding morale and negatively effecting studio reputation forever, as we have seen with CDPR.
Exclusives are made to attract gamers to your system to spend money on a multitude of other content, not to be a sole earner in it's own right.... so recent pushes to publish games on PC should be very concerning to investors as it damages PlayStations USP and core strength of creating games of such quality that only one or two publishers can ever match them (Rockstar being one).
After Microsoft recently invested possibly over 10 Billion in their games division it is concerning that Sony have been so reserved in expanding their own studios (Only 13) or making any pro-active moves. PlayStation is lacking a blockbuster exclusive shooter and possibly face Xbox having Elder Scrolls, Fallout and whatever Obsidian do next as exclusive, on top of Doom.
There is no point in Sony going out and just buying any old studio... such as the recent rumors of them buying Leyou. They need top tier developers such as From Soft or if they are going towards China, studios such as MiHoYo and Game Science Studio. Turtle Rock would be a great shooter studio which could support PSNow for instance, as it is always online.
So overall, threats to the business are.... censorship (with many online communities starting to hate Sony's censorious ways of late), loss of talent, lack of investment, Competition investing massive amounts comparitively, being too focused on cloud and subscription gaming and getting distracted from core competencies, not valuing Japanese heritage and Japanese partners enough and losing support (i.e. Sega with Football manager and Yakuza).
There are also many obvious opportunities, PSNow needs to be rebranded and relaunched with a great selection of Indie games, always online games with all DLC, like Destiny and Monster Hunter World and with Sony's leverage, they should be able to have a new AAA 3rd party game or one that is just a month or two old every 2 months.... along with some lower cost projects like Concrete Genie and multiplayer experiences like Factions (TLOU2) would help sell such a service and make it seem more premium.
Developing their relationship with Disney, to bring more Marvel characters to PlayStation exclusively would generate a lot of excitement and hype for the system. Possibly with a new MVC game using 2D sprites in collaboration with Capcom. A Wolverine / Logan game or X-men game etc.
I also find it surprising that Aniplex and Sony at large own so much or have massive leverage over anime IP's, yet they are made into games by 3rd party developers and then brought to every platform. These should in all rights be exclusive to PlayStation.
With so many potential players in cloud and subscription gaming, Sony should make sure that PlayStation is the only place that you can get everything... especially COD, Fifa, NBA, GTA, RDR, Destiny, Fortnite etc etc.
In a sense, letting Bethesda be bought by a competitor was a huge slip regarding this idea of being a unified place to play everything.
Sony Pictures / TV / Streaming Strategy
We are in the midst of a streaming war, with Disney and Netflix both spending themselves dry to produce content to attract people to their services.
Sony's position here is unique as they are the only one of the bigger film and tv studios that do not have their own streaming service and instead position themselves as an arms dealer of sorts.
Nearly all the top shows on Netflix and Amazon are made by Sony.... The Crown, The Boys, Breaking Bad, Atypical, Hotel Transylvania The series, The Tick, Truth Seekers, Alex Rider, Cobra Kai and then they also supply many films on top of that, recently 21 / 22 Jump Street, Venom and Into the Spiderverse were just some of those.
This strategy has been profitable, while Sony has closed its grip around the anime streaming niche, with the two main platforms and various content production initiatives, such as Aniplex, under Sony Music Japan.
People will see notifications of late on series such as Attack on Titan, that it will no longer be available on Netflix from February 2nd.... I would assume Netflix will have to depend on it's own anime production going forward.
After the latest decisions at AT&T to focus on streaming, prominent directors such as Christopher Nolan have been very vocal about how they don't like the direction.... Sony Pictures againstands to gain from theior 'outside' position here and may become directors first choice for creative freedom but that is dependent on Sony embracing that label and avoiding censorship and limiting creatives.
Common Stock Performance
Currently sitting at 103.29 dollars per share on the NYSE
Market Cap of 126.65 Billion dollars.
finance.yahoo.com
Cash and Cash Equivalents
[One of the company's crucial health indicators is its ability to generate cash and cash equivalents.]
As of last quarterly report: 41.59 Billion dollars.
Most recent Annual / Quarterly results
Reserved for next quarterly results ETA February 2/3.
Recent and ongoing acquisitions
Plausible Future Acquisition Targets
MGM is currently for sale and holds the rights to many valuable IP's such as James Bond, Rocky Films and The Pink Panther etc.
Asking price is 5.5 Billion which is high considering the complicated IP ownership arrangements, the low number of IP's and the future prospects of those IP's.... particularly when Sony Pictures could pick up the distribution rights in many possible eventualities.
Epic Games - With already 1.4% of a stake in the company at a cost of 250 million dollars, and following on from the purchase of Audiokinetic.... it could be possible that Sony will look to increase their stake in Epic either gradually or in one deal, to get it above 51% and thus controlling the company.
Bluepoint games - After a long partnership and recently launching the very well received Demons Souls remake, it would make sense for Sony to purchase the Texas based developer. They have been proven to be technically gifted and can generate massive nostalgia and hype around impeccable remakes and may well make their own full games based on all their experience with multiple franchises. This would be very much in the mold of how Insomniac was bought.
Kadokawa Corporation - After the purchases of Funimation, Madman Anime Group and soon Crunchyroll, and considering Sony already own Aniplex and the associated IP (Full Metal Alchemist, Sword Art Online, Demon Slayer, Angel Beats! Etc.) it would make sense for them to continue to complete their stranglehold on the entire sector and would also net them From Soft, which would be highly beneficial due to existing IP arrangements, possible sequels and remakes through Bluepoint. Asking price would be at least 2 Billion dollars.
ViacomCBS - With a market cap of about 25 Billion, it would be a massive acquisition that would put Sony in control of CBS, MTV, Comedy Central and countless other channels and networks, as well as Paramount Pictures and their back-catalogue, including Titanic, Mission Impossible, Transformers, The Godfather series, Interstellar and most of the early Marvel Films... such as Iron-Man 1 & 2, The first Avengers film, Hulk films and Thor films.
Sony has positioned themselves as a type of arms dealer in the streaming war, profiting massively by providing content to Netflix, Amazon and others and adding ViacomCBS, would make Sony a Film and TV juggernaut that could easily leverage their relationships with Disney, Apple and others to excellent effect.
Details above may be amended, updated or altered as they change or if new information emerges.
Listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (traded since 1970, making it the oldest Japanese company to be listed in an American exchange), and was ranked 122nd on the 2020 Fortune Global 500 list. (Wikipedia, 2021)
Sony is the 4th most valuable company in Japan measured by market cap and could break the top 3 sooner, rather than later if current trends continue. The company is also considered a 'Core' business for Japan and fully protected from any foreign acquisitions.
Largest Japanese companies by market capitalization
List of the largest companies in Japan by market capitalization, all rankings are updated daily.
companiesmarketcap.com
G & NS Strategy
PlayStation is currently in a time of management transition, the successful strategy until now has been based on excellent first party, high quality content, strong support from Japanese developers and publishers such as Square-Enix, Capcom, Bandai Namco, Koei-Tecmo, Sega, Platinum and others. On top of strong relations with TakeTwo, Activision and strategic long term marketing deals, such as with EA's Fifa games.
Going forward, it is likely that management will continue to focus on blockbuster AAA exclusives, however there are many threats facing the business.... aggressive poaching of their highly skilled staff by Microsofts Xbox division, a seeming exodus of staff from Japan Studio, including the creator of Silent Hill, senior staff from Sony Bend have also left and Sony San Diego.
Some comments and moves by the new management have also been very questionable.... Jim Ryan saying that he wanted to lower costs, which could damage game quality and result in talent leaving, eroding morale and negatively effecting studio reputation forever, as we have seen with CDPR.
Exclusives are made to attract gamers to your system to spend money on a multitude of other content, not to be a sole earner in it's own right.... so recent pushes to publish games on PC should be very concerning to investors as it damages PlayStations USP and core strength of creating games of such quality that only one or two publishers can ever match them (Rockstar being one).
After Microsoft recently invested possibly over 10 Billion in their games division it is concerning that Sony have been so reserved in expanding their own studios (Only 13) or making any pro-active moves. PlayStation is lacking a blockbuster exclusive shooter and possibly face Xbox having Elder Scrolls, Fallout and whatever Obsidian do next as exclusive, on top of Doom.
There is no point in Sony going out and just buying any old studio... such as the recent rumors of them buying Leyou. They need top tier developers such as From Soft or if they are going towards China, studios such as MiHoYo and Game Science Studio. Turtle Rock would be a great shooter studio which could support PSNow for instance, as it is always online.
So overall, threats to the business are.... censorship (with many online communities starting to hate Sony's censorious ways of late), loss of talent, lack of investment, Competition investing massive amounts comparitively, being too focused on cloud and subscription gaming and getting distracted from core competencies, not valuing Japanese heritage and Japanese partners enough and losing support (i.e. Sega with Football manager and Yakuza).
There are also many obvious opportunities, PSNow needs to be rebranded and relaunched with a great selection of Indie games, always online games with all DLC, like Destiny and Monster Hunter World and with Sony's leverage, they should be able to have a new AAA 3rd party game or one that is just a month or two old every 2 months.... along with some lower cost projects like Concrete Genie and multiplayer experiences like Factions (TLOU2) would help sell such a service and make it seem more premium.
Developing their relationship with Disney, to bring more Marvel characters to PlayStation exclusively would generate a lot of excitement and hype for the system. Possibly with a new MVC game using 2D sprites in collaboration with Capcom. A Wolverine / Logan game or X-men game etc.
I also find it surprising that Aniplex and Sony at large own so much or have massive leverage over anime IP's, yet they are made into games by 3rd party developers and then brought to every platform. These should in all rights be exclusive to PlayStation.
With so many potential players in cloud and subscription gaming, Sony should make sure that PlayStation is the only place that you can get everything... especially COD, Fifa, NBA, GTA, RDR, Destiny, Fortnite etc etc.
In a sense, letting Bethesda be bought by a competitor was a huge slip regarding this idea of being a unified place to play everything.
Sony Pictures / TV / Streaming Strategy
We are in the midst of a streaming war, with Disney and Netflix both spending themselves dry to produce content to attract people to their services.
Sony's position here is unique as they are the only one of the bigger film and tv studios that do not have their own streaming service and instead position themselves as an arms dealer of sorts.
Nearly all the top shows on Netflix and Amazon are made by Sony.... The Crown, The Boys, Breaking Bad, Atypical, Hotel Transylvania The series, The Tick, Truth Seekers, Alex Rider, Cobra Kai and then they also supply many films on top of that, recently 21 / 22 Jump Street, Venom and Into the Spiderverse were just some of those.
This strategy has been profitable, while Sony has closed its grip around the anime streaming niche, with the two main platforms and various content production initiatives, such as Aniplex, under Sony Music Japan.
People will see notifications of late on series such as Attack on Titan, that it will no longer be available on Netflix from February 2nd.... I would assume Netflix will have to depend on it's own anime production going forward.
After the latest decisions at AT&T to focus on streaming, prominent directors such as Christopher Nolan have been very vocal about how they don't like the direction.... Sony Pictures againstands to gain from theior 'outside' position here and may become directors first choice for creative freedom but that is dependent on Sony embracing that label and avoiding censorship and limiting creatives.
Common Stock Performance
Currently sitting at 103.29 dollars per share on the NYSE
Market Cap of 126.65 Billion dollars.
Symbol Lookup from Yahoo Finance
Search for ticker symbols for Stocks, Mutual Funds, ETFs, Indices and Futures on Yahoo! Finance.
finance.yahoo.com
Cash and Cash Equivalents
[One of the company's crucial health indicators is its ability to generate cash and cash equivalents.]
As of last quarterly report: 41.59 Billion dollars.
Most recent Annual / Quarterly results
Reserved for next quarterly results ETA February 2/3.
Recent and ongoing acquisitions
| 31 July 2017 | Funimation | Video streaming service and television/film distribution | 
| $143,000,000 | | |
| 22 May 2018 | EMI Music Publishing | Music publishing | 
| $2,300,000,000 | Sony/ATV Music Publishing | |
| 8 January 2019 | Audiokinetic | Video Game | 
| Sony Interactive Entertainment | | |
| 6 February 2019 | Madman Anime Group | Film and television distribution | 
| A$35,000,000 | Aniplex | |
| 10 June 2019 | Mido Holdings | Electronics | 
| Sony Electronics | | |
| 8 July 2019 | Nurulize | Movies/Virtual Reality |
| Sony Pictures Entertainment | | |
| 19 August 2019 | Insomniac Games | Video Game |
| $229,000,000 | Sony Interactive Entertainment | |
| 1 October 2020 | Nevion | IP media and cloud | 
| Sony Electronics | |
Pending
| Date | Company | Business | Country | Value | Used as / Integrated with | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 December 2020 | Crunchyroll | Video streaming service |
| $1,175,000,000 | Funimation | |
Plausible Future Acquisition Targets
MGM is currently for sale and holds the rights to many valuable IP's such as James Bond, Rocky Films and The Pink Panther etc.
Asking price is 5.5 Billion which is high considering the complicated IP ownership arrangements, the low number of IP's and the future prospects of those IP's.... particularly when Sony Pictures could pick up the distribution rights in many possible eventualities.
Epic Games - With already 1.4% of a stake in the company at a cost of 250 million dollars, and following on from the purchase of Audiokinetic.... it could be possible that Sony will look to increase their stake in Epic either gradually or in one deal, to get it above 51% and thus controlling the company.
Bluepoint games - After a long partnership and recently launching the very well received Demons Souls remake, it would make sense for Sony to purchase the Texas based developer. They have been proven to be technically gifted and can generate massive nostalgia and hype around impeccable remakes and may well make their own full games based on all their experience with multiple franchises. This would be very much in the mold of how Insomniac was bought.
Kadokawa Corporation - After the purchases of Funimation, Madman Anime Group and soon Crunchyroll, and considering Sony already own Aniplex and the associated IP (Full Metal Alchemist, Sword Art Online, Demon Slayer, Angel Beats! Etc.) it would make sense for them to continue to complete their stranglehold on the entire sector and would also net them From Soft, which would be highly beneficial due to existing IP arrangements, possible sequels and remakes through Bluepoint. Asking price would be at least 2 Billion dollars.
ViacomCBS - With a market cap of about 25 Billion, it would be a massive acquisition that would put Sony in control of CBS, MTV, Comedy Central and countless other channels and networks, as well as Paramount Pictures and their back-catalogue, including Titanic, Mission Impossible, Transformers, The Godfather series, Interstellar and most of the early Marvel Films... such as Iron-Man 1 & 2, The first Avengers film, Hulk films and Thor films.
Sony has positioned themselves as a type of arms dealer in the streaming war, profiting massively by providing content to Netflix, Amazon and others and adding ViacomCBS, would make Sony a Film and TV juggernaut that could easily leverage their relationships with Disney, Apple and others to excellent effect.
Details above may be amended, updated or altered as they change or if new information emerges.
