Will Microsoft Acquire Sony?

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TOPTEN

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Sony is my favorite company. The campany is most mismanaged. One of the problems is Howard Stringer. Why does anyone call him Sir? Unless you live in England, you should not. Stringer mismanaged the US operations. When he climed to the top at CBS, one of the famous CBS reporters said that Howard knows how to get ahead, whose a-- to kiss, I guess. Now he is running Sony, mismanaging the US operations, killing brands like Aiwa, Aibo, and Qualia. The movie products should never carry a Sony label. Bad move and Sony don't go together. Sony always meant quality. Blu-Ray was developed by Sony years ago and because of the Hollywood studio dictators, to whom Sony belongs, it was not produced; only now, with all the added limitations, and too late. I could go on and on.

I read that these and other books were written in Japan. There is no reference about them on Google. Are any of them available in English?
Takuma Miyazaki "Technological Hollowing" and Kazukuni Kobayashi "Sony Sickness"

How long will it be before my least favorite company, Microsoft, buys Sony for penuts? Thanks to Howard and Co.
 
I don't think Microsoft will buy Sony. If Sony ever gets in trouble then what will most likely happen is other Japanese companies, banks will take over parts of it instead.
 
That'd be a lot better. It'd be sad to see a good comapny get torn apart by a bad guy in it...
 
Hmm, I don't seem to remember Sony being so well run prior to Stringer taking the helm. As to Microsoft buying them, not yet. Wouldn't fit in with Microsoft's current strategy as Sony is not an Internet related company, though I suppose Microsoft would buy the play station game segment if it were available for sale.
Topten, you should read 'Funny Business', a book about a Fullbright scholar's experience working for Sony as an intern. Might open your eyes to a few things about Sony's bureaucracy, one of the things Stringer needs to work on changing. Sony has problems recently with the engineers fighting with the marketing department who is argueing with the manufacturing division. Bascially, it's like the parts of the body fighting with each other over who gets to control the body, and instead the body just keeps getting worse (losing money and market share).
 
Sony does not need Stringer, the fat old man going blind. Stringer bragged that he bought the rights to the movie Da Vinchi Code, which is anti Catholic and Catholics are now boycoting Sony. He was responsible for implementing thet root kit BS on CD's. He is the main man responsible for the value of the Sony name to go down. He is the man that will hand the great Sony over to the evil Microsoft. Are there other forums in Japan, in English, on this subject?
 
Stringer has mixed performance reviews. The section he headed was the most successful unit of SONY until recently, both sales and profit wise. SONY's electronics divison tanked over the past years as SONY continued to ride on its brand name rather than introducing anything really new. Stringer's problem is that he is not that familiar with the biggest section that he has to reform (the same aforementioned electronics division) and he also doesn't want to live in Japan, preferring to visit as necessary.

As to Microsoft, never mind, as I said, most of SONY's assets would not be of interest to a software/operating system company, though I suppose if they wished to buy more entertainment content for the MSN network they might make a deal. But most of all, the death knell for SONY is premature.
 
I like Xbox, but the rest of my electronics are Sony. I hope the stay seperate...
 
Sony was managed so badly, including by Stringer in the U.S., that any half decent manager could improve it. If Stringer succeds, it means nothing; he will deserve no credit.
 
Actually the news that was reported credited him with turning the entertainment division around. The main criticisms of Stringer were that he plans to not live in Japan, his experience with other Sony divisions are limited, and he might not be able to be effective unless he gets some support from the very people who see him as an outsider and unsuited for the job. Then again, they thought the same thing about Ghosn before he turned things around at Nissan.
 
Sure, some people vote with their wallets and boycott companies they don't like. Why do you think Bill Gates is so well liked!?:?
 
Sony just took out a 600 million bank loan in US $ to fund the PlayStation 3 and Blue-Ray DVD combo. If you saw their presentation at E3, you'd be convinced that Sony is definitely making a big mistake. They are convinced Blue-Ray DVD will destroy HD DVD, and their new console doesn't have any launch titles worth bragging except for the latest Final Fantasy incarnation. Selling it at $500 US has even further alienated many of their supporters.

Recent polls show that 75% of Japanese intend on buying a Wii exclusively, and the rest are split between the PS3 and X-Box 360. In the US, people most people will own either an X-Box 360, or both a 360 and a Wii, especially since both consoles will cost the same together as a single PS3 alone.

Sony's been in trouble before, but this time they are taking an awful risk with little promise of it paying off. I don't see Sony caving in, but I do see them selling off a lot of their assets to make up for this disaster. Microsoft acquiring Sony's videogame assets in Japan wouldn't be a huge stretch. They're trying hard to market the X-Box to Japanese gamers, and fighting to acquire Japanese game developers. While many Japanese developers feel that innovation in gaming is growing in America, they fear that it is stagnating in Japan--hence the risks Nintendo is taking with the Wii (risks that promise to pay great dividends, whereas the Sony risks promise little). A disaster like this would give X-Box the ability to grab Square-Enix from the wreckage and get more Japanese gamers interested in their console.

I don't see Sony going bottom-up. I don't even see a merger. Sony is too big to just go belly-up like that. However, they are in trouble. If this risk doesn't pay off (and it probably won't), I would expect Sony's PlayStation to join the Dreamcast in the console graveyard.
 
That would be trippy, Sony falling out of the videogame market, after having defined it for so long.
 
gaijinalways said:
That would be trippy, Sony falling out of the videogame market, after having defined it for so long.
Click to expand...
It wouldn't be trippy. It would be tragic. But they are doing it to themselves.

Their own employees and company loyalty may save them on this one, though. Sony employees and workers affiliated with them will avoid purchasing the Wii simply out of loyalty. But avoiding the purchase of one product and actively purchasing Sony's are two different stories.
 
No tragedy here in my book. Companies thrive on the products and services they sell. If SONY can't hack it, so be it.
 
gaijinalways said:
No tragedy here in my book. Companies thrive on the products and services they sell. If SONY can't hack it, so be it.
Click to expand...
That's capitalism in a nutshell. Sony's going to reap what they're sowing. Not that I like it. Sony's had a fantastic history. There's also the trend of only two consoles moving to the next generation. Until PlayStation, it was Nintendo and Sega, mostly. The "golden age" of RPGs (especially for SquareSoft) was on the Super NES/Super Famicom and the original PlayStation. That's why I have a soft spot for Sony. But this latest move is going to kill their BlueRay and videogame assets. Sony will survive, but they'll be out of those markets for a very long time.

It speaks volumes when Japanese developers are much more enthused about making games for an American console than for a Japanese one.
 
True, that is a bit shocking, though I have always been more of a PC gamer, except when I play Sega games at the game center!
 
Bucko said:
People actually have "favourite" and "least favourite" companies?
Click to expand...

Ofcourse... I support Fiat, AlfaRomeo, Ferrari... tho.. I can affort only products from the first one :p
 
TOPTEN said:
Sony is my favorite company. The campany is most mismanaged. One of the problems is Howard Stringer. Why does anyone call him Sir? Unless you live in England, you should not. Stringer mismanaged the US operations. When he climed to the top at CBS, one of the famous CBS reporters said that Howard knows how to get ahead, whose a-- to kiss, I guess. Now he is running Sony, mismanaging the US operations, killing brands like Aiwa, Aibo, and Qualia. The movie products should never carry a Sony label. Bad move and Sony don't go together. Sony always meant quality. Blu-Ray was developed by Sony years ago and because of the Hollywood studio dictators, to whom Sony belongs, it was not produced; only now, with all the added limitations, and too late. I could go on and on.
I read that these and other books were written in Japan. There is no reference about them on Google. Are any of them available in English?
Takuma Miyazaki "Technological Hollowing" and Kazukuni Kobayashi "Sony Sickness"
How long will it be before my least favorite company, Microsoft, buys Sony for penuts? Thanks to Howard and Co.
Click to expand...

Haha, I doubt you are a racist. Why in the world, does the international company always have japanese CEO? Doesn't that sound strange to you?
 
Well I really hope not. Why don't they, over at Sony Japan fire that Howard Stringer that's causing so much trouble for the company?
 
Plese read my article "Misgivings about the dull personnel revolution at Sony".
dandoweb.com/e/Sony.html
 

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