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’Pink picks
Comment, analysis and offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Managing eurozone fragility
Why is Spain paying higher interest rates on its government debt than the UK?, asks the FT columnist. The answer to is illuminating:
Is this the beginning of the end for HMV?
I have been told by two music and entertainment companies that they can no longer get credit insurance for additional sales to HMV. Here is an extract from an e-mail sent by the “head of credit and collections”
Nomura goes all gaikokujin
Just a small setback along the glittering path to globalisation for Japan’s number one broker Nomura, but nothing to get in the way of its bold internationalisation push.
As Reuters reported at the weekend:
Samsung: the good news and the bad news
Remember when Samsung products were the ones you bought when you couldn’t afford a Sony?
Once derided as the poor, copycat cousin of the glamorous Japanese electronics giants, Samsung Electronics — the flagship of South Korea’s largest chaebol or conglomerate — is lauded by Lex on Friday for seemingly dragging the country out of its slump “all on its own”.
Sony — the more things stay the same, the more things change
Things couldn’t have looked worse at Sony some months ago. But in a potent reminder of how radically the mood can shift in a relatively short space of time, Sony on Thursday became the latest Japanese electronics company to forecast a recovery,
How do you say ‘bonus rage’ in Japanese?
While “bonus rage” has become a household phenomenon in America, in Japan, the unfolding saga has been met with at best, perplexed bewilderment and at most, quiet shock at the disclosures of bonus and salary levels.
Sir Howard gets his way at Sony
Lo and behold! An uber-consumer-electronics king is born in Tokyo:
Sony on Friday unveiled a sweeping shake-up of its businesses and radical management changes aimed at better integrating its hardware and software operations and giving Sir Howard Stringer,
Day of gloom for tech leaders
Microsoft on Thursday announced its first company-wide job cuts in its 34-year history, capping a day of gloom for the technology sector. The software giant’s plans to cut up to 5,000 jobs came as Sony plunged deeper into crisis after the electronics and entertainment group warned it would suffer its first full-year operating loss in 14 years,
Sony (II): Sir Howard’s way?
Could this be the beginning of the end game at Sony – at least for the troubled phase now embroiling the once-sexy consumer electronics and entertainment giant?
As mentioned earlier, Sony stunned investors on Thursday afternoon Tokyo time with an announcement that it would post a Y260bn ($2.9bn) annual operating loss – its biggest ever – and cited sliding demand,
Sony: Watch this space…
It’s all coming to a head at Sony — even as we write, as Sir Howard Stringer and other executives attend an evening press briefing in Tokyo to outline more detail of Sony’s sweeping restructuring plan.
CDS report: sentiment sours
Expectations of significant losses by Japanese electronics group Sony and a string of gloomy announcements from European retailers have spoiled the mood across European credit markets.
The iTraxx list of European investment grade companies was trading around 169.7bp this morning,
Sony tumbles on loss report
Sony shares plunged 8.2% to Y2,020 yen in Tokyo on Tuesday after the Nikkei business daily reported it is expected to post an operating loss of about Y100bn ($1.1bn) for 2008/09 on weak sales and a stronger yen,
Sony shares slide on restructuring moves
Shares in Sony Corp fell nearly 3% on Wednesday afternoon in Tokyo after the company announced it would cut $1.1bn in costs in its struggling electronics operations through job cuts and other restructuring measures,
Sony ‘shokku’: The sequel
Sony rarely does things by halves – as seen in its phenomenal growth from a tiny company in 1946 with just 20 employees and one hot product idea – magnetic recording tape – into the consumer electronics and entertainment behemoth it is today.
Sony to buy out Bertelsmann
Sony on Tuesday agreed to buy Bertelsmann out of Sony BMG, giving the Japanese electronics group control of the world’s second largest record company for an initial $600m while allowing the German media group to claim proceeds of $1.5bn.
Toshiba to abandon HD-DVD war
The two-year battle over which technology will become the industry standard for the next generation of high-definition DVDs could finally end this week after Toshiba gave the strongest sign yet it would exit its HD-DVD business.
Paramount in further HD DVD blow
Paramount is poised to drop its support of HD DVD after Warner Brothers’ recent backing of Sony’s Blu-ray technology, in a move that will sound the death knell of HD DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end.
Sony shares up on Warner DVD decision
The high-definition video strategies of Toshiba and Microsoft have been thrown into disarray on the eve of the consumer electronics industry’s biggest trade event of the year, following a landmark movie deal secured by rival Sony,
Sir Howard to stay on at Sony
Sir Howard Stringer on Tuesday said he would remain at Sony for three more years, quashing speculation that he would step down should the electronics group achieve its full-year targets. The announcement came as Sir Howard,
SWFs: Watch out, the force is with them
It seems barely a day goes by now without news of one sovereign wealth fund or another buying yet another chunk of western financial or corporate heritage. In the last 24 hours alone, we’ve heard about Abu Dhabi’s rather lucrative Citigroup deal and Dubai’s swoop on a stake thought to represent nearly 5 per cent of Sony.
More SWF activity: Dubai takes stake in Sony
Dubai International Capital continued its thrust into Asia, unveiling a “significant investment” in Sony on Monday. The high-profile Gulf sovereign wealth fund has been trying to raise the Asian component of its portfolio to 30% as it seeks to diversify its holdings away from Europe,
Sony prices offering at top of range
Sony Corp’s financial arm will raise 348bn yen ($3bn) through an IPO after setting the price at the top end of an indicated range, thanks to healthy demand despite investor jitters, reports Reuters. Sony Financial Holdings,
Sony sets financial unit IPO date
Sony said it will list shares of its financial unit on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on October 11, raising up to Y361bn ($3bn) in Japan’s largest IPO this year. The IPO of Sony Financial Holdings, which oversees the group’s online banking and insurance operations,
Sony plans £4bn float of financial services unit
Sony has revived earlier plans to float its highly profitable financial services division and is working on what could be Japan’s biggest IPO this year, reports The Times. The flotation of Sony Financial Holdings is expected to proceed despite the recent fragility of global equity markets,
Sony to float financial arm in Japan’s biggest IPO
Sony Corp plans to raise about $2.5bn by listing its financial unit, in what is expected to be Japan’s largest IPO this year, reports the Nikkei business daily [via Reuters].
Sony will sell at least 30 per cent of its stake in Sony Financial Holdings this autumn and use the roughly Y300bn in proceeds to bolster core electronics products including portable music players and flat TVs,