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Sony says they plan to spend excess operating cash on investments in the entertainment space

Astorian

Member
This doesn’t necessarily mean for the PlayStation division btw.

We plan to utilize the excess operating cash flow from this fiscal year as a source of future strategic investment going forward. Opportunities for investment, especially in the entertainment space, are steadily increasing and during the period of our next mid-range plan, which will begin next fiscal year, we aim to make more investments for growth than we did during the current mid-range plan.
Here’s a rundown of some of Sony’s entertainment acquisitions over the past three years for context…


  • Awal - $430mm / February 2021
  • Crunchyroll - $1.2bn / December 2020
  • Pureflix Entertainment - Undisclosed / November 2020
  • Eleven Films - Undisclosed / June 2020
  • Whisper Films - Undisclosed / February 2020
  • Silvergate Media - $195mm / December 2019
  • Game Show Network - $380mm / November 2019
  • Insomniac Games - $229mm / November 2019
  • Manga Entertainment - Undisclosed / May 2019
  • EMI - $3.7bn / May 2018
  • Peanuts (Charlie Brown) - $178mm / May 2018
  • Funimation - $143mm / July 2017

 
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kretos

Banned
tenor.gif
 

ManaByte

Member
I think this means more movie/tv streaming investment to compete against every other movie studio that has their own streaming service.
 

lachesis

Member
Well, I heard they made ton of money this year from Demon Slayer... so maybe live action Demon Slayer? (gasp)
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Makes sense, Sony aren't going to be able to challenge the infrastructure-heavy tech giants at this point as they are years behind. However they can ensure that they get a seat at the table by controlling brands and IP, especially in the Asian market where they have more experience than their US counterparts
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Makes sense, Sony aren't going to be able to challenge the infrastructure-heavy tech giants at this point as they are years behind. However they can ensure that they get a seat at the table by controlling brands and IP, especially in the Asian market where they have more experience than their US counterparts

Love these posts that always bring Silicon Valley giants into the discussion, even when it doesn’t make any sense.

Like does it actually warrant constant repeating that Sony doesn’t have an operating system like Android/Windows, or that they haven’t created a massive cloud computing infrastructure like Amazon etc

I mean really? Do some of you even understand what kind of company Sony is?
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Love these posts that always bring Silicon Valley giants into the discussion, even when it doesn’t make any sense.

Like does it actually warrant constant repeating that Sony doesn’t have an operating system like Android/Windows, or that they haven’t created a massive cloud computing infrastructure like Amazon etc

I mean really? Do some of you even understand what kind of company Sony is?

It makes perfect sense if you follow the current trend towards streamed content becoming the primary distribution mechanism for entertainment and media.

These are private and not state-run institutions, and as a result can act as global tastemakers and gatekeepers for content making them extraordinarily powerful. Look at it like YouTube or Twitch, if those guys won't host your content you have a major problem because no matter its quality you need the visibility. They can curate their platforms to give favourable positioning to partners while burying their competition.

Rather than spending billions building up competing infrastructure it makes far more sense for Sony to broaden their IP portfolio so they always have leverage in negotiation with these partners. The same thing applies in the way they have streamlined their hardware divisions to focus on niche technologies like optical sensors which have massively widespread application from automotive engineering to smartphones. It gets them a seat at the table to negotiate with corporations much larger and cash rich than they are.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
Thirty7ven Thirty7ven

If I'm wrong, lets have your interpretation.

Don't be a sad little coward who only interjects with the LOL icon, join the conversation if you have something of value to add.

Basically what you are trying to imply is that he who makes the road owns the automakers. When really the only thing that happens is that he gets $ through tax.

With so many competing cloud companies, the only thing happening for content creators is choice and a better price.

You are looking at it from a monopolist standpoint, where a company with a cloud infrastructure will effectively cut out everyone else when in fact what they want is everyone else to rent it.

Who provides the infrastructure for Netflix, the biggest in the world? Amazon. Yet in this interpretation of yours, Amazon should be cutting Netflix off and make it exclusive to their streaming service and force Netflix to negotiate with them towards putting Netflix content on Prime. But that’s not what happens, and Disney is also using Amazon.

You are looking at the world upside down.
 

Little Chicken

Gold Member
Netflix has already been flooding the market with shit anime, do we need more?

Sony wants to become a Disney-lite, it seems.
 
Their biggest acquisition as a whole was less than $4B

This is why I laugh at people who bring up Take Two, Capcom or Square as acquisition targets for Sony. Those are mainly multiplat devs who make the most money on PC+mobile and Sony doesn't have the stamina to bleed money while they restructure them to become exclusive studios.
 

Little Chicken

Gold Member
Aren't video games part of "entertainment"? Why some people are trying to twist the meaning of this making it sound that the investments only have to do with movies and anime?
Because they've invested heavily in Anime over the past year, they clearly see it as an area they want to get a foothold in.
 

longdi

Banned
im not too sure about their spendings on anime though...its frickin anime.
otherwise it's good their shares keep climbing, they are pretty well value and have space to go up further
 

sublimit

Banned
Because they've invested heavily in Anime over the past year, they clearly see it as an area they want to get a foothold in.
Yes but they have also invested heavily in video games. Some people make it sound that they only want to invest in movies and anime.
 
Their biggest acquisition as a whole was less than $4B

This is why I laugh at people who bring up Take Two, Capcom or Square as acquisition targets for Sony. Those are mainly multiplat devs who make the most money on PC+mobile and Sony doesn't have the stamina to bleed money while they restructure them to become exclusive studios.
They don't need acquiring publishers to stay relevant. Only studios to diversifying their portfolio.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
The first thing came into mind by entertainment was theme parks.


What happened to that Warcraft and Mario themeland ?
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Basically what you are trying to imply is that he who makes the road owns the automakers. When really the only thing that happens is that he gets $ through tax.

With so many competing cloud companies, the only thing happening for content creators is choice and a better price.

You are looking at it from a monopolist standpoint, where a company with a cloud infrastructure will effectively cut out everyone else when in fact what they want is everyone else to rent it.

Who provides the infrastructure for Netflix, the biggest in the world? Amazon. Yet in this interpretation of yours, Amazon should be cutting Netflix off and make it exclusive to their streaming service and force Netflix to negotiate with them towards putting Netflix content on Prime. But that’s not what happens, and Disney is also using Amazon.

You are looking at the world upside down.

The Disney model is exactly the point. You don't need infrastructure when you have brand and IP, you can leverage providers for better terms.

Disney cut out the middleman by leaving Netflix and setting up their own branded service where they not only gain monetarily from having their own subscriber-base but are free to curate and market it in any way they choose to the advantage of their overall business.

The important thing you seem to be missing is the immense value of Netflix as an established brand, its practically synonymous with streamed video entertainment. That being the case it has no shortage of suitors willing to offer it hosting and infrastructure because its guaranteed traffic and revenue. Its weakness is, as shown by the Disney deal, when a third-party content provider no longer needs that brand leverage as part of the distribution chain.

This is why MS is acquiring so much IP. The goal is to elevate the Xbox brand, and they cannot allow their growth (a result of heavy investment) to be undercut from within by strategic partners in content moving elsewhere or setting up their own shingle down the line.

Conversely, from the content provider's perspective there's the risk that comes from being overly dependent on the service/infrastructuralist's good graces in furthering their business aims. If they are unhappy with how they are being treated in terms of visibility/counter-programming they need to act nimbly because although IP is king, its power is more fragile and ephemeral. Infrastructure and service branding is far more durable and enduring than any single hot property.

This is a real concern when the infrastructure owner is also running their own branded (front facing) service package, because they have an obvious imperative in supporting and strengthening that in the marketplace. Its all about balance of power in negotiation. So no, Amazon have no reason to cut Netflix off but they'd much prefer the subscriber numbers to be switched such that Prime Video is the dominant service, at which point they'd be better able to cut deals with both Netflix and their downstream content providers.
 
I think this means more movie/tv streaming investment to compete against every other movie studio that has their own streaming service.

I did see that their 2021 tv lineup was promoting Bravia Core streaming. They could possibly spend for content on that.
 

CouzinD

Member
Should’ve invested in either Netflix, or Spotify before they became mega huge. Would’ve given them a really broad portfolio combined with their games and movies assets.
 
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Bryank75

Banned
Makes sense, Sony aren't going to be able to challenge the infrastructure-heavy tech giants at this point as they are years behind. However they can ensure that they get a seat at the table by controlling brands and IP, especially in the Asian market where they have more experience than their US counterparts
Challenge them in terms of what?

Amazon and Google's efforts in gaming have been a disaster and Xbox despite 20 years in the game is still way behind in most metrics.

Sony is no slouch in economic terms anymore, they have plenty of assets and very strong relationships as well as the advantage of many developers and publishers coming from their home territory in Japan. We saw just today that they have formed an alliance with Kadokawa and Cygames parent company.

I imagine there will be other deals we will learn of.

For instance, they might not want to buy out Sega but they can make a contract to get Yakuza and Persona exclusive for the longterm... maybe longer than 20 years if they wanted. Just throw as many wrenches in the works as possible.

Acquisitions that other companies are pursuing can easily be exploited and leave the buying party heavily out of pocket.
 
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