Sony To Sell Off All 9.5 Million Shares Of Square-Enix Stock

[Showan]

Sony?s most recently closed fiscal year (ended March 31, 2014) was a financially trying one for the company. In February, the company warned of a $1.1 billion loss for the period, which was followed by layoffs and closures in the United States and abroad (including the profitable games division).

Today, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. has announced it will sell all 9.52 million shares of Square-Enix stock it is currently holding. The deal was struck with brokerage firm SMBC Nikko Securities and will see a cash infusion of approximately ?4.8 billion ($47.1 million).

The exact transfer price will be published on April 17. Sony will include the capital gains in its earnings projection for 2014, which will be announced on May 14 in conjunction with its full-year 2013 results.

[source: Sony via Siliconera]

 

Our Take
There are two sides to this transaction. Sony needs the cash, and this will help buoy the finances a bit. However, it could also be seen as a sign of no-confidence in the Final Fantasy publisher. That company has been struggling due to extremely large budgets that simply can?t be recuperated with sales (as evidenced by labeling strong sellers in 2013 as ?underperformers.?)

The good news is that, internally, things might be getting back on track. Final Fantasy XIV has performed well, and Square-Enix has touted the success of Bravely Default in the west (thoughseemed surprised by sales). Square-Enix must get a handle on what regional audiences want.

 

 

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Filed under: news, sony, finance, square-enix

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/04/16/sony-to-sell-off-all-9-5-million-shares-of-square-enix-stock.aspx

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Thief000]

Too bad for Sony that $47.1 million doesn't cover $1.1 billion. That company is truly bleeding money it seems and that even with the PS4 out and doing well.

I don't think this will shake SE up that much, but they have been underperforming with the FF13 series.

I'm skipping 14 as I didn't like 11 and am not much of an online RPG player, but I hope 15 (former versus 13) can make them come back to former glory at some point.

[theyarecomingforyou]

I honestly don't understand how companies like Sony can continue to operate. Sony has been losing money for years and it has a terrible credit rating. The PlayStation brand might be famous but it doesn't earn any money, just like the Xbox. Selling off shares in Square Enix does nothing to help Sony's long-term prospects. Something drastic needs to be done or else the company will face bankruptcy. In fact one report I read said that there is a 78% chance of Sony going bankrupt in the next two years.

[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

with a poorly as sales have been lately for Final Fantasy games i am surprised they have not just re-done FF7 like the gamers have been asking for since the PS3 was launched.

[perochan]

if only Square-Enix would listen to gamers and remake FF7... and that would probably bring back the fame SE once had.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Considering SE haven't been exclusive since what, FF12?, this is a good move for Sony.

 

God knows what SE are going to do. Ironic the series that saved them is now killing them.

[SierraSonic]

Heres the problem with Square Enix, they haven't released a good FF in years, two online versions which lose money constantly and no core FF player really wants or wanted. I honestly haven't bought any since FF9. I mean, I bought the repatchs on steam, but that isn't going to bring in the money.

 

Now if sony and SE were smart, or at least trying to make money, that ff7 demo that was shown during the launch of ps3 would actually be a game for ps4.

[HawkMan]

with a poorly as sales have been lately for Final Fantasy games i am surprised they have not just re-done FF7 like the gamers have been asking for since the PS3 was launched.

For the same reason they're losing money on their new games

Making modern games with the graphics in them is extremely costly. Even when the story and that is already there the graphics alone are movie budget worthy.

Now this is ok for a lot of games. BUT JRPG IS a niche, and while gaming as a whole is growing that niche isn't, in fact it might be shrinking as a lot of the older gamers are dropping off and would rather play games that don't require 50 hours and the memory of an elephant to finish and keep track of the story. And they're not being replenished by new gamers.

Basically it might not be economically defensible to redo FFVII, and they may have to rethink how to do JRPGs completely, shorter, simpler, cheaper.

[Aergan]

It's a good move for them seeing as Square-Enix as a developer has not created a decent game in the last generation. They spend far too much time on developing a game engine per generation and do little for creating memorable titles.

[Gotenks98]

A FF7 Remake would be the only thing that would make me buy a PS4.

[wakjak]

I honestly don't understand how companies like Sony can continue to operate. Sony has been losing money for years and it has a terrible credit rating. The PlayStation brand might be famous but it doesn't earn any money, just like the Xbox. Selling off shares in Square Enix does nothing to help Sony's long-term prospects. Something drastic needs to be done or else the company will face bankruptcy. In fact one report I read said that there is a 78% chance of Sony going bankrupt in the next two years.

 

Blackberry.. look at blackberry, and understand that, as long as they're doing better than Blackberry, they WILL survive.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Considering SE haven't been exclusive since what, FF12?, this is a good move for Sony.

 

God knows what SE are going to do. Ironic the series that saved them is now killing them.

 

Pretty much, if anything Square kicked off last gen with 360 exclusives. Don't think they've done much Sony exclusive for ages. Drakengard 3 is the first title for a while. FF14 is only PS console exclusive as MS won't allow cross play with PC servers.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Now this is ok for a lot of games. BUT JRPG IS a niche, and while gaming as a whole is growing that niche isn't, in fact it might be shrinking as a lot of the older gamers are dropping off and would rather play games that don't require 50 hours and the memory of an elephant to finish and keep track of the story. And they're not being replenished by new gamers.

Final Fantasy was never confined to the JRPG niche. It was one of the most successful franchises at the time and only dropped off due to the poor quality of later releases. I have no interest in JRPGs but I would happily buy a remake of FF7.

 

I mean, space sims are a niche but you wouldn't know it from looking at the success of Star Citizen. Great games extend beyond their genre.

[GotBored]

Sony's financial reports: http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/

 

Sony's games division recorded sales and operating revenue of 441.8 billion yen ($4.35 billion) for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2013, according to its latest financial results, a 64.6 percent year-on-year increase primarily due to the launch of the PlayStation 4 in major markets. 

 

The games sector also reports an operating income of 18 billion yen ($172 million) for the quarter, a 13.4 billion yen increase on the same quarter last year, attributed to an increase in PS4 sales and probably due to PS+ being required for online play.

 

Sony's Entertainment Division is making money... lots actually.

 

I find it odd that people think when a company reports a loss than it means its bankrupt. If Sony made $2 Billion in profits for the fiscal year and then re-invested $3 Billion by buying shares, property, private corporations, R&D or etc then that is considered a $1 billion loss for the fiscal year.

 

Sony Corp made $78.52 Billion in Sales (Microsoft Corp made $72.93 Billion)

Sony Corp owns $160.3 Billion in Assets (Microsoft owns $128.7 Billion)

 

Sony just owns some Square-Enix shares and are selling them off cause the company has had poor sales for years and isn't really a good investment. Sony is just cutting away the fat (Poor Earners) which includes its PC Division which runs at a large loss including the VAIO brand this year. TV Division is also being split and then one half is being sold off while Sony keeps the premium TV Side.

 

I should have bought shares in Sony Corp in February after the reports because SNE stock dropped to $8/share and now it is at $19.. Would have more than doubled my money and it looks to keep rising with the sale of PC division and splitting of TV division. All that's left is profitable Sony divisions.

[spenser.d]

If you invest $3bn in r&d and it puts you in the red, you didn't make a profit at all. How you put it isn't how it works. You can bury your head in the sand all you want but Sony is struggling as an entire company at the moment. I would expect and hope they pull through but that's just how it is.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

The only people burying their head in the sand are those that believe that console (and even handheld) gaming is doing ok. All 3 of them are hurting on that front long before you even consider the other sectors they are involved in.

[spenser.d]

The only people burying their head in the sand are those that believe that console (and even handheld) gaming is doing ok. All 3 of them are hurting on that front long before you even consider the other sectors they are involved in.

Yes but that should be apparent. This is different because we're talking companies as a whole. Microsoft can afford to dredge through the gaming industry because they're doing excellent as a company financially. Sony not so much unless they turn things around.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Yes but that should be apparent. This is different because we're talking companies as a whole. Microsoft can afford to dredge through the gaming industry because they're doing excellent as a company financially. Sony not so much unless they turn things around.

 

We see things very differely re: Microsoft doing excellent, but this isn't the section for it ;)

 

As for soldiering on, they might have the money to do it, doesn't mean they'll actually do it though. Not with investors to appease, never mind not making money on it more than 10 years later. Things aren't looking so hunky dory for the X1 either, but hopefully they can make some cuts to balance it out and turn it around like Sony did last gen. Gonna take a few years to get there IMO.

[watkinsx2]

 

Sony Corp made $78.52 Billion in Sales (Microsoft Corp made $72.93 Billion)

Sony Corp owns $160.3 Billion in Assets (Microsoft owns $128.7 Billion)

 

 

 

You neglected to mention of those 78.52 billion Sony made on sales only 2.448 billion was profit. Of the 72.93 billion in sales Microsoft made 26.76 billion in profit. Over 10 times more. Microsoft also has over 3 times more equity. Nice try as massaging the numbers to make Sony's financial numbers look good. Sony's Entertainment division might be doing good but its propping up the rest of it. The TV division for example hasn't made a profit for 10 years! (source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/02/06/uk-sony-results-restructuring-idUKBREA1509B20140206)

 

Don't get me wrong. Sony isn't going anywhere and no one in their right mind would want them to go under but they need to shed more of the unprofitable parts of the business. The PC line has gone, whats the guess they pull a Panasonic and ditch a large part of the TV business too.

 

As for Square Enix - they have made some decent games recently, wasn't Tomb Raider one of them? I loved that game. I guess the same thing might be happening to them as Irrational Games, lots of sales but not enough to cover massive development budgets.

[spenser.d]

We see things very differely re: Microsoft doing excellent, but this isn't the section for it ;)

As for soldiering on, they might have the money to do it, doesn't mean they'll actually do it though. Not with investors to appease, never mind not making money on it more than 10 years later.

I said financially - the numbers don't lie :p

And it doesn't, but they're certainly positioning themselves in a way where it's fairly apparent that they plan to do just that. They've made Xbox an integral part of their entire consumer ecosystem so it has a lot more support behind it, and a lot more to lean on than just the gaming industry. Can't say the same for Playstation.

[Torolol]

i believe the attitude of most posters here would be different if it was Microsoft to shed unprofitable sectors.

[trooper11]

The only people burying their head in the sand are those that believe that console (and even handheld) gaming is doing ok. All 3 of them are hurting on that front long before you even consider the other sectors they are involved in.

The concern is long term viability for sure. But right now, there seems to be healthy interest in the new consoles. If we see ps4 sales drop off, then that's an indication that the long term outlook is not so rosy.

Things are going well enough that Sony can literally lean on their entertainment division to make their situation seem better.

MS can't do that, but then they actually lean on other division to make the entertainment division seem less important.

i believe the attitude of most posters here would be different if it was Microsoft to shed unprofitable sectors.

Yeah, then most would be counting the days before MS closed its doors.

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

i believe the attitude of most posters here would be different if it was Microsoft to shed unprofitable sectors.

 

I doubt it.

 

Those who really care want all 3 to succeed otherwise the competition dies, even if they have no intention of owning more than 1 console.

 

The concern is long term viability for sure. But right now, there seems to be healthy interest in the new consoles. If we see ps4 sales drop off, then that's an indication that the long term outlook is not so rosy.

Things are going well enough that Sony can literally lean on their entertainment division to make their situation seem better.

MS can't do that, but then they actually lean on other division to make the entertainment division seem less important.

 

Don't get me wrong, promising numbers for both the X1 and PS4, but nobody should be taking a sigh of relief or resting on their laurels just yet. Still a long way to go and lots of debt to clear.

 

I sort of compare Sony to Apple in 1994. Involved in every market and master of none. They need to scale back, focus on what they're good at and all will be well. They seem to be doing just that (laptops & tv cuts, this SE news etc).

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Why Sony Sold All its Square Enix Shares Revealed

By Luke Karmali

 

Sony's decision to sell all of its shares in Square Enix is apparently the result of an agreement between the two companies, rather than any bad blood.

 

That's according to Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto, who explained at Thailand's Comic-Con (via Mognet Central) that from the start, the entire process had been about the two companies helping each other out.

 

"Back in 2001, Square Enix had financial problems and Sony bought our stocks," he explained. "Now, the situation is reversed. Since then, we have had good support from our customers for our products, so Square Enix is back on its legs."

 

?But Sony has declined. The presidents of both companies had negotiation and resulted as everyone knew. We did not have argument. Since Sony once helped us, it was time we helped Sony back.?

 

While it's possible Hashimoto is simply keen to put a good spin on the news, the facts certainly seem to line up with what we know. Square Enix announced earlier this week a return to profit, thanks to the efforts of Final Fantasy XIV, while Sony's top-brass have announced pay cuts in the face of continuing losses.

 

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/05/13/why-sony-sold-all-its-square-enix-shares-revealed