The CEO of the largest single shareholder of Sony stock, Dan Loeb, has written an open letter to Sony’s current CEO, Kaz Hirai. In the letter he calls for Sony to sell off between 15%-20% of the company to raise funds to revitalise Sony Electronics.
To maximize Sony’s overall success, we believe the company should change the structure of its ownership of Sony Entertainment
Doing so will strengthen Sony by reducing its burdensome debt, thereby providing additional resources and capital to focus on revitalizing the resurgent Sony Electronics
While Third Point supports your agenda for change, we also believe that to succeed, Sony must focus, In a spirit of partnership, we offer our timely plan to strengthen Sony.
Dan Loeb, through his portfolio of companies, owns 6.5% of Sony and while that obviously isn’t a majority his forthright letter would have shaken the conservative Sony boardroom. While these sorts of out spoken shareholders are the norm in the west; it isn’t how shareholders work in traditional Japan.
Sony has officially responded already and stated
Sony welcomes investment in the company. We are focused on creating shareholder value by executing on our plan to revitalize and grow the electronics business, while further strengthening the stable business foundations of the entertainment and financial service businesses.
Personally I’m with Sony on this one, while Dan’s plan would ultimately show a greater return on investment I feel it would weaken the company as a whole. Sony has just returned to profitability, granted only because they sold their HQ, but it’s a change in the right direction and with the PlayStation 4 expected to succeed the future looks bright for Sony and Kaz.
But if Sony fails to meet their expectations you can be sure that more shareholders will start backing Dan’s plan which could spell the end of Sony as we know it.
Dan the man with the shareholder plan… don’t know why but that just tickles me
Last Updated: May 15, 2013
Martin du preez
May 15, 2013 at 11:22
inb4 “teh $ony iz teh d00mz tr0l0l0”
Rince an repeat
May 15, 2013 at 11:28
I would venture that it was the shareholders that got SONY into the pickle that they are in now…
Illuchne Mancera
May 15, 2013 at 11:30
Both Dan Loeb and Sony have points… but I don’t think selling off part of Sony will help it at all. Sony has a strong presence in audio visual, but there’s also the matter of pricing. I, personally, don’t think you’re getting a better TV if you go for a Sony over a Samsung, or Sinotech.
Admiral Chief Combat Engineer
May 15, 2013 at 11:34
Sinotech? Really? I dunno man, Samsung FTW for TV’s
Skoobaz
May 15, 2013 at 11:39
I need to win the latest comp so I can plug my new shiny PS into my Samsung LED. Is that a merger or a hostile takeover?
Illuchne Mancera
May 15, 2013 at 11:45
I do believe that’s a merger
Illuchne Mancera
May 15, 2013 at 11:47
Yeah… I concur, but I can’t afford the Samsung I want… so I got a Sinotech with a 5 yr warranty 😛
Admiral Chief Combat Engineer
May 15, 2013 at 11:49
5 yr warranty is boss though!
Price difference?
Fnuik
May 15, 2013 at 12:15
That’s what I thought as well so about 2 months ago bought myself a 7-series Samsung 46″ smart tv. Had it for a month, trying to fine tune the tv etc. until I just gave up and returned the tv. It had the worst motion blur ever while playing ps3. Trying to play far cry 3 on the tv was impossible. Even wile watching rugby you would get a weird stutter every now and then. Looked as if the tv needed to catch up to the live broadcast every few minutes.
After returning the Samsung I bought a 55″ Sony 3D led tv, and couldn’t be happier.
HvR
May 15, 2013 at 11:36
I can not concur on the TV side, Sony has been slipping the last couple of years. IMHO LG has passed them with their latest panels.
The only thing going for Sony in South Africa (and is a black mark against LG) is after market support. Samsung has been improving greatly on this front as well.
Illuchne Mancera
May 15, 2013 at 11:55
Good point well made. Sony has been slipping, and everyone else has been catching up, but the place that Sony has REALLY got a problem, is after sales support on the Playstations, but then again Nintendo and Xbox support is exactly the same in SA.
“Oh, your unit is not working, AND it’s still under warranty? That’s terrible… Here… Have a refurb console”
FoxOneZA - X-Therminator
May 15, 2013 at 12:27
I’ve had to return 2 Xbox’s this generation. The first time I was given a new console and the second time a refurb. Service was iffy which saw the consoles replaced in a week after submitting forms.
Samsung on the other hand will sent a techie out to my place when the Internet Broswer wasn’t working on my Smart TV. Techie advised the TV needs a new mobo. 2 days later Samsung phoned to see if my problem has been solved. Then, over the phone, I was told to pick up a new TV with upgraded internals and backlit remote.
HvR
May 15, 2013 at 13:50
That improved a lot over the years, in the late 90’s i was shown to “third party” repairer who “investigated” the failure and then sent it to another repair shop in Jozi. 9 months in it was 4 repair jobs later, 2 new monitors when the third party guy thrw in the towel and gave me an IBM monitor out of his unclaimed stock (it is still running to this day).
FoxOneZA - X-Therminator
May 15, 2013 at 12:21
The problem lies within Sony being a unified company. The general electronics, and to a large extent cellular department is dropping the company. Sony and Playstation should split. I almost bought a Playstation monitor a few backs until I came across numerous of complaints of those monitors lasting only 6 months. Sony shares are cheap but nobody wants to buy them. Why is that?