Microsoft Buyout of Ailing Sony Possible

imashoe writes "BonaFideReviews has published an interesting article stating that a Microsoft buyout of Sony is quite possible sometime in the not-so-far future. From the article: 'All this added up, you have to ask yourself. Will the next Playstation you purchase post-PS3 run a Microsoft operating system and have backwards compatibility for PS1 PS2 PS3 Xbox and Xbox360? Putting your rabid love for Sony aside, this doesn't seem as far fetched as it once did, when the Sony name wasn't covered in enough red tape to fill the Grand Canyon.'"

Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone at Microsoft know anything at all about running a consumer electronics company? Okay, they've tried to enter the field in a very narrow area with X-Box but does anyone seriously think that gives them the experience they'd need? This sounds like insanity. They have enough problems in their own markets.

Apple has lots of cash too ...

[willtsmith]

Apple has lots of cash too, but I doubt you'll be seing anyone buying/merging with Sony at all.

1st it's a Japanese company, and I don't see those guys allowing Americans to come in and wreck their management structure. Second, years of losses does not necessarily equate to going under. Sony is a powerhouse consumer electronics giant that is arguably the leader in the field. GM has been posting record losses lately as well, but do you really think that anyone could buy GM?

Yes, Sony does have to get those Playstations out the door this year. And when they do, it will be an incredible success regardless of costing $150 more than a stripped down Xbox360. Sony has way too much mindshare out there and tons of fans waiting to buy the machines. Once the PS3 goes out the door the videogames get sold to those rabid fans and thats how Sony makes their money. Oh yeah ... that and they sell all those blu-ray fabs and jump-start blu-ray way past the point where HD-DVD will ever be able to catch up.

Predictions.....

[hptux06]

If the article writer can predict buyouts that will occur in 8 years time, then he must be good enough to tell me next week's lottery numbers, please.

TFA = Smoking crack gives nice visions.

[JollyFinn]

Sony does other things than just the playstation consoles, the corporation has over 66 Billion USD worth of sales, the entire console market isn't anywhere near that figure.
Also sony corporation happens to have huge assets. As for cash flow statements, sony corporation made quite good operating profit they just invested it. So basicly they are probably not interested in selling their self to microsoft, it would be hostile take over probably.
And this kind of buy out is going to be killed by either japanese or american goverment by monopoly issues.

Finally the speaking of weak stock price for sony is *bull*. Check out the 10 year graph, if we ignore the bubble spike the stock is relatively high price.

These fan boys just look the part they understand and assume that part of picture is what matters.

Re:Red Ink, not red tape.

[kfg]

On the other hand, depending on your gaming politics, some of the mistakes are deliciously ironic. Take the very first sentence as an example:

"Like many of you, it's hard for me to remember a time when the word "Playstation" was synonymous with gaming."

KFG

I don't think so

[Bueller_007]

Check the prices. (This info is from Bloomberg).
There are 1,001,633,000 Sony Corp shares on the market.
In order to get controlling interest of the company, Microsoft has to buy 50% plus one. That's 500,816,501.

Sony stock today is trading at 5,700 yen/share. Total = $24,220,719,970.31
In August of last year, it was 3,640 yen/share. Total = $15,467,266,788.07

So in other words, Microsoft could have saved 9 BILLION dollars by buying it last August.

But I'm no business expert, and I haven't read the article, so everything I just said could be dead wrong.

At any rate, if they were going to buy it, last August sure as hell would have been a better time.

root kit

[CaptainPinko]

so now the root kit comes bundled with the OS. No need to purchase a seperate CD. Except in Europe wher bundling is illage.

Idiotor

[paullyjunge]

I think the idiotor saw fit to post a crap story. Here's his thought process:

I need a story.
Oh look, MS might buy Sony.
Hmmm, some of his points have already been declared false by Sony, but MS buying Sony sounds good.
Oh jeez, this guy doesn't know english...but MS buying Sony sounds sooo cool.
Oh hmmmm, this article has no basis and draws its conclusion from thin air...but MS buying Sony still sounds yummy in the tummy.
Well this article is total crap, fiction, garbage, junk, but MS buying Sony makes me happy inside.
Posted.

Granted this does assume the jackass read the article first, which if true, says a lot about the editors at Slashdot.

Umm, why would they?

[RealmRPGer]

The one big, important thing to note here is that Microsoft is primarily a software developer and Sony is primarily a hardware developer. Microsoft has so far only eaten up software companies, so why would they want to start going after hardware companies? Microsoft's success in past has been largely, if not solely, due to the fact that it costs near nothing to manufacture software, so it's practically all profit.