SONY Discussion

[AtariFX]

First, I'm new here and hope I'm posting this in the correct place. I represent a fairly large group who are extremley frustrated with SONY, especially their subdivision Sony Online Entertainment, SOE (A Subdivision of Sony Pictures Digital, SPD). I'm really someone here could answer a few of my questions (please excuse my ignorance)

1. With the PS3 almost already being considered a failure, Blu-Ray losing the next-gen DVD race, and the company losing over $400 million due to exploding batteries this year - how is it possible their stock price is at a 6 month high??

2. Is there any way to get info on a subdivision of a company, like SOE if it is barley mentioned in the Annual Report?

3. If a subdivision (SOE again) were to make a $10 million dollar deal with a private company, would details be available to stockholders?

Thank you so much for your time.

[zyzzyva57]

(1) Re: Sony: http://www.thestreet.com/_tscs/funds/madmoneywrap/10332138.html

(2) Re: "Is there any way to get info on a subdivision of a company?" -- If the subdivision is worth it to stand alone, then the main company will spin it off, e.g.,: "Oilfield- services provider Halliburton Co., parent of KBR, yesterday began the process of shedding the unit by selling shares of the contractor at $17 each in an initial public offering that raised $473.3 million..."
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=HAL

As an aside, Master Cramer gets highly p-o'd if a company drags its feet doing this

(3) Re: "If a subdivision (SOE again) were to make a $10 million dollar deal with a private company, would details be available to stockholders?" This information is in its Earning Reports and Conference Calls--Why our Master stresses we should listen to them or read them--He is absolutely correct! I am finding it amazing what the tone of a Conference Call alone reveals, for example--as another example, "lvlt" has a coal operation you can only discover about in its ER, which should add ump to the stock with a hard winter now in the west

[AtariFX]

Thanks for the input. I looked through all the ER's but still no mention of that subdivision. There must be something out there. I think Ive scoured every inch of SONY's investor sites.

[zyzzyva57]

(1) Then Sony Corp does not own it if this division is not discussed in its ER
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=Sony&hl=en

(2) Seeing this, I move to a new search and find out the company is privately owned:
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=Sony+Online+Entertainment

(3) I see at its web page there is no Investor's page (confirmation)
http://www.station.sony.com/sonyonline/

[quanmech]

Re: The unflagging value, despite the PS3 having a failed launch and blue ray being a miserable (as well as tightly controlled) format at this point, is probably due to the strength of SNE's brand across several A/V products. Their Brevia line seems to be a hit with TV folk for example. Also, keep in mind that just like Electronic Arts (ERTS), their marketing machine is a juggernaut and a lot of uninformed consumers allow marketing to keep them "informed".

That being said, I wouldn't deal in stocks for videogame publishers, first or third party, unless I was ABSOLUTELY sure. Those guys are built largely out of marketing as opposed to actual product and percentage change is usually pretty small unless it's some major deal like GTA, or exclusive contracts for super hot property. SNE is a little different from the other guys since games are only one aspect, but look at them for everything SNE represents.

As for who owns SOE, that's a damn good question... I'll say this much: I don't trust Smedly farther than I can toss a dump truck. I'm sure someone has fatbabies.com articles archived somewhere that still have his antics chronicled in there.

Re: #3, If it were a $10m deal, it still wouldn't be such a big deal anyways. EA routinely spends anywhere from 12-22m on a title, and oftentimes that's not including marketing. It's decent for a small dev house, but not for something the size of SOE.