Well if you sell some shares. If you sell shares of your own Financial Holdings everybody can see that Sony needs cash. The Financial Holdings are usually the part of companies making the most money in terms of earning/volume (e.g. Siemens, BMW even Toyota if I remember correctly). Selling parts of your "house bank" looks like you need cash, lots of it and fast. And as far as I read Sony needs cash, bank's didn't want to give. So it is a desperate move that very well could pay out if the Gaming/Television department of Sony invest it right.
I don't think desperate is the word. It is quite common for companies to spin of arms of its self to unlock the value that is 'hidden' or supressed by being part of a larger whole. Using these funds for captial and supply expansion is smart if you think that is where there is money to be made.
It generally is seen as a positive move in the stock market...not a move of desperation.
It is widely thought that money raised from the share sale will be used to boost the firm’s consumer electronics division, leading to an increase in the production of its Bravia TV range and a cash injection for its PlayStation unit.
The initial public offering (IPO) is the largest in Japan this year. Trading commences on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on October 11.
Sony supposedly has a big announcement on October 12th according to GamePro France. Until then, all we can do is speculate.
"Indeed, it seems that the dated October 12, 2007 one was chosen by Sony to make an enough important advertisement to be qualified in-house “big-bang”"…
Sony expected to shed its inhouse chip design and manufacturing including Cell assets. More focus/cash to be spent on core product lines.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp is in talks to sell its production facilities for advanced microchips used in its PlayStation 3 game console to Toshiba Corp, sources close to the matter said.
The sale, which would include production lines for the "Cell" microchips, dubbed "supercomputer on a chip", is part of Sony's strategy to shed costly semiconductor assets and focus on the production of strategic products such as image sensor chips used in digital cameras and camcorders, they said.
I submitted part of the earlier today under PSP...note that it is NOT a 'redesign' but a 'refreshing' that is being talked about. In 'industry speak' this could be refering to internal design changes that lower manufacturing costs and not necessarily anything dramatic to the consumer.
The subscription-based (six dollars per month) ClubPenguin takes the form of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), where children play games, amass virtual goods, and interact with each other, all while participating as penguin avatars. According to PaidContent, the site rakes in about $60 million in revenues and is already profitable despite being fewer than two years old. In March, ClubPenguin had 4.5 million visitors.
If this is true Sony could really leverage this within thier PS3 and PSP environments.
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Stringer has been selling off non core assets since he got there...this latest is nothing new. Sony still retains a 60% controlling interest.