Specialty B.O. Preview: ‘Before Midnight’, …
2012-2013 Season Network Rankings: CBS Sweeps In Final …
Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings
TOLDJA! Paramount Pocketing $190M From Disney For Marvel …
‘Good Morning America’ Hits 19-Year Viewership …
MGM Buys ‘Modern Family’ Producer Ben …
‘Fashion Police’ Writers Chant On Picket Lines: …
Universal Makes Seven-Figure Deal For ‘The School For …
Steven Soderbergh Will Interrupt Retirement To Direct And …
Cannes: EOne Announces Itself As Player In U.S. …
Will LIN TV Stations Go Dark On Time Warner Cable?
Very Crowded Memorial Weekend Kick-Off: ‘Hangover …
Shareholders Quiz Time Warner Chief On Political Ties And …
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Modern Family’, ‘Law …
Hammond On Cannes: Paramount’s ‘Nebraska’ …
Cannes: J.C. Chandor Sets Next Project ‘A Most …
Hannibal Classics Sets Cast For Nic Cage Pic …
Hammond On Cannes: Robert Redford’s Brave New Role …
Hot Trailer: Jennifer Aniston And Jason Sudeikis’ …
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Banner Promotes Jeremy Kleiner To …
Hot Trailer: Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s ‘Don …
Neither is the music business, Sony Corporation of America CEO Michael Lynton told CNBC today. That won’t stop the speculation that the struggling electronics giant would take a serious look at an offer if it’s big enough. Lynton also says Sony just renewed its premium TV deal with Starz because “they made a terrific offer.”
Loading ... Loading ...
Disney wants you…
Disney will probably just go after Sony’s Marvel licenses (Spider-Man and Ghost Rider) if Sony Pictures ends up on the chopping block. CBS will probably try for the rest of the studio.
IMO Sony pictures is to important to their living room strategy against Microsoft. Both are heavily engaged in a war to rule the living room. With PS4 and Xbox Durango being full blown media centers, the shadow of Apple looming overhead threatening to throw their 800 lb gorilla weight into the fight, Steam promising a Steambox entry this year, and Intel announcing their own media center product, Sony needs every bit of ammunition they can get.
Plus their biggest current rival in the living room right now (MS) just opened up their own studio.
The fight for the living room is going to make the smartphone and tablet wars look like child’s play. Selling off the tools (media) they will need doesn’t seem to be in their best interest.
SPE is making TV shows for Amazon, not Playstation.
If Disney bought it, they would get control of all the Marvel characters, specifically Spider-Man. Imagine Spider-Man getting in on Avengers 2!
Also, in this hypothetical world, Disney would also get The Muppets Take Manhattan and Muppets From Space, thus getting the entire Muppet movie catalogue.
But that won’t happen. CBS or others would bid for SPE, and I don’t think Disney wants another (major) movie studio.
So, they’re selling it, then.
All they want is “a terrific offer” which means of course Sony is for sale if the price is right anything can be bought and everything gets sold “if the price is right” that’s always what makes a deal happen.
Lynton was talking about Starz’s “terrific offer,” for some of Sony’s content. Why would Sony sell its film and music divisions when they’re profitable and important to the company’s flagship Playstation business, which will launch its next console soon? They won’t be sold, and that’s been said many times before. This whole “rumor” started when some idiotic analyst, Brian Wieser, started suggesting that a deal (with no possibility of occurrence) could happen. What kind of analysis is that anyways? So, basically, I can sit here and conjecture that for the right price, Microsoft will sell itself to, say, Apple when that will never be the case? Ridiculous.
Sony’s music and film biz together over the past 2 years together have brought in more than any other division. They are the only bright spot on the empire of the setting sun.
Why would they sell them?
If anything, Sony will sell their hardware. The cameras that go into iPhone, the batteries that go into everything.
They hired an old media guy to run the place. He focused on stars and ran the rest of Sony into the ground. And the reality is, they had it all. They could have had it all. They have 72 million Playstations connected to the internet. They have a ton of movies, games and music. They have more going for them in terms of distribution than Netflix of Amazon and they can’t do it.
Every company Michael Lynton has been in charge of has ended up in ruins. Even the most desperate Dairy Queen wouldn’t hire this loser, yet he ends up in charge of Sony? Expect the worst for the company and the best for him: he’s the “bad penny” of the old adage.
Hmmm… Sony Pictures, which Michael Lynton led for 8 years, has been profitable. Looks like you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Let’s not forget that Sony was so bad at marketing a film library that when they owned part of MGM/UA Sony was forced to have Fox handle their catalog on home video because Sony did such a piss poor job with it and Fox continues to handle their releases to this Fay. If anyone was going to by Sony Pictures it would be CBS or Open Road just to increase their catalog. Disney already owns part of Spider-Man thanks to Sony needing money when the last one was in productuoon, they don’t need to buy the studio for that.
Sony can always get your website (hddvdworld) to handle distribution for it, eh? LOL. Thanks for your … errr … plug.
It’s amazing how many clueless video game fans come down from the mountains to comment when a story like this goes up. One can go back and forth on this all day but there are two simple points to be made.
1) Lynton can deny Sony Pictures is for sale all he likes but it doesn’t make it true. Why? Because we’re talking about it, simple as that. When was the last time Bewkes had to come out and say that Warners wasn’t for sale for example? There is blood in the water. Everyone knows it.
2) Kaz has NEVER liked the film/TV division. Never understood the biz and doesn’t like the amount the money it takes to run it. If SPE can radically change the way it does business then he might warm to them. But for now? He’s not a fan and never has been.
Clueless? As opposed to using tired cliches like blood in the water? Two simple points without much support at all. Bravo, you really carried the day on this one…
It’s more like SPE’s rivals keeping this rumor alive. Notice how there’s no discussion of which major institutional investors would back such a sale in the first place. The Wall Street analyst feeding this rumor “imagine[s]” his scenario will play out! The living room strategy for Playstation is so irrelevant, that’s why even Microsoft is pursuing it to buttress its XBox business, eh? Sure thing…
A lot of rumors are thrown out in business and politics, but at the end of the day, without verification, they’re just meaningless.
I enjoyed your angry but paper thin reply. You made a point of saying my points had no merit and then barely responded to either of them.
If Sony Pics was run as tightly as some other studios the chances are we wouldn’t be having this back and forth. But it isn’t.
And if you don’t believe me go and look at the financials on Men In Black 3. Laughable isn’t the word.
Lets examine your “points” in greater detail.
1) “Because we’re talking about it, simple as that. [...] There is blood in the water. Everyone knows it.” Those are “paper thin” claims. LOL.
Kazuo Hirai in The Financial Times (2-27-2013): In reference to rumors that “Sony’s profitable film and music businesses could be sold or spun off,” he said, “I come from the entertainment business… I used to be accused of not caring about electronics, now it’s the other way round. I’m trying to strike a fine balance but unfortunately it’s not happening.”
Sony kept the studio all this time, even under the disastrous tenure of Jon Peters and Peter Gruber in the early 1990s. If it didn’t have the stomach then, it would’ve sold the studio long ago. However, experience, in addition to Hirai’s statement, shows that there won’t be a sale.
2) Where does Kazuo Hirai say he doesn’t like the film/TV division so much that he’s going to sell it? You need to brush up on your history. Hirai rose through the ranks at Sony’s PlayStation unit and eventually became its chief. If all the film/TV assets were sold, the PS4′s success would be jeopardized since content is important in the strategy against Nintendo and Microsoft. In other words, he’d undermine his reputation as PlayStation’s former leader and his current initiatives, in addition to the company he now leads. Why would he do this, shoot himself in the foot? Which of Sony’s major shareholders like JTSB and JPMC said they’d support such a sale? None. Keep dreaming, dude.
You can keep pretending that you made good insights.
the studio hit the biggest box office last year but made no money because of the shitty deals it made. producers and rights holders all got rich, the studio did not. amy pascal will make any deal to get something she wants, even if its a terrible deal for the studio and puts totally unrealistic BO on the pic. filmmakers lover her because she never says no and is always ontheir side. great for them but not for the studio. Sony needs to wise up and make better business decisions.